Love Will Find A Way
by pierce-benoist
Summary: Brittana AU. In the beginning I hated Santana, and she hated me. Everyone knew we hated each other and no one would have thought that we would ever be able to be in the same room alone together, nevermind planning to go to New York together to get married. And it was even funnier to think that what started this whole thing, was just a simple cup of coffee..
1. Graduation

_"Ooh boy you lookin' like you like what you. Won't you come over and check up on it? I'ma let you work up on it. Ladies let 'im check up on it. Watch it while he check up on it. Dip it, pop it, twerk it, stop it, check on me tonight."_

I groaned loudly while blindly smacking my hand around my nightside table trying to find my phone to turn the alarm off. It's been going off for ten minutes but I'm way too tired to actually open my eyes and look for it. Finally my hand hit something and the sound gets muted slightly. I wrap my fingers around the phone and pick it up, bringing it toward myself so I could turn the alarm off. I slide my thumb across the bottom of the screen to unlock it and smiled at my background for a second before finally silencing the music. Whenever people hear my alarm they laugh because the song is old but I don't care, Beyoncé is amazing and her songs will never get old.

I clicked the home button on my iPhone to bring me out of the alarm app and swiped to the side a few times till I could fully see my background. I moved around the apps a bit so that there was only one on a separate page thing. That way I could see the picture of me and Santana without having to search for it.

It was my favorite picture of us, our friend Quinn took it the day Santana proposed to me. All three of us were at the park, Q and Santana sitting on the curb of the sand area while I was swinging on the swing. I had no idea that she was going to propose that day, I thought we were just going to the park like usual. But when both of them got up and Santana asked me to stop swinging before she got down on one knee, I knew it was happening. I started crying before she even started speaking.

Obviously I said yes, and that was when Santana started crying and I jumped on off the swing and into her arms. The picture was of her holding me up, my legs and arms wrapped around her body, and we were kissing, tears streaming down both our faces. I smiled at the picture one last time before locking my phone, putting it back on the table before turning onto my right side so I was facing the brunette haired beauty beside me.

Santana was so pretty when she was sleeping. I mean, she was pretty all the time, but when she was asleep she was especially beautiful. I know her back is facing me, but I know right now she looks really pretty, even if I couldn't see her face. I moved closer to her until her back was almost against my chest and draped my arm over her side. I leaned in close to her ear. "Santana.." No response. "Honey you have to wake up, my alarm went off and it's already way past 6:30." Still nothing. Santana was so stubborn in the mornings.

I softly kissed the back of her shoulder and wrapped my arm tighter around her body. When she still didn't wake up, or maybe she was awake but was pretending to be asleep, she does that sometimes, I peppered little kisses all over her shoulder and her neck.

"Mm.." Santana sighed and pressed her back into my front, angling her head to the side to expose more of her neck.

"Ahh. So you _are_ awake," I giggled, not stopping my kisses that were now trailing up her jaw line to her ear.

"Nope, still sleeping," she mumbled out and pretending to snore quietly but it came out really loud.

I giggled again. "You're a terrible liar, you know that?" I asked, biting down softly on her lobe. Santana let out a quiet moan but didn't say anything. "C'mon sleepy head, we gotta get up! Graduation day, remember?" This seemed to get Santana's attention because she finally started shifting around. She took her arms over her head and stretched them out while she stretched her body at the same time. I always thought she looked like a cat whenever she did that.

"What time did you say it was?" she asked, suspiciously sounding more awake.

I grabbed my phone again and checked the time. "It is..6:47."

Santana suddenly jumped out of bed and started moving around the room like she hadn't been asleep just minutes before. "Shit, we slept in. We're going to be late."

I sat up in the bed and stretch my arms out. "No, _you_ slept in, I didn't," I pointed out. "But yeah, we're probably going to be late."

"We should have gotten up earlier."

"Santana, its fine. We'll just rush it and we'll get to school on time, okay?"

Santana looked at me for a few moments then nodded. "Yeah, okay. We have to hurry though, okay? So shower one at a time or else we'll be here forever."

"But I like taking showers with you," I whined out playfully.

"Britt.." Santana walked over to the bed until she was in front of it and took my hands in hers. "you know I love taking showers with you too but we're seriously late so we have to move fast. I promise when we get home we'll have all the showers you want together, okay?"

"Okay!" I chirped. Taking as many showers with Santana as I wanted when we got home seemed like a much better deal than taking only one now.

Santana smiled. She then leaned down to kiss my lips softly and pulled away before I had the chance to deepen it. "Okay. So you shower first, I'm going to go get us breakfast, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan." I watched Santana start to leave until I realized something. "San, wait!"

She turned around and looked at me with a worried face, "What? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

I giggled again and stood up to walk to her. "No, nothing happened silly. You worry too much."

"Maybe," she agreed. "Now tell me what's wrong so I can go get us food."

A smile crept up on my face. I moved in closer to her till my lips were right near her ear. "You're still naked," I whispered out before breaking into a full blown laughing fit.

Santana blushed and looked down at herself, noticing for the first time that morning that she wasn't wearing any clothes. "Well whose fault is that? Definitely not mine."

I started laughing again as she began searching the room for her clothes which were pretty much everywhere. I usually just threw them wherever, not paying attention to where they went. I finally got my laughing under control and started to help Santana search for her clothes. So far she had found her t-shirt and I found her shorts but we still couldn't find her-

"Seriously, Britt? These were my favorite pair!"

I turned around to see Santana holding up a ripped pair of leopard print panties in her left hand and looking at me with a dead serious look. I just started laughing again.

"That's not funny!" she said, throwing the tattered cloth at me. "You're buying me a new pair," she grumbled before putting the rest of her clothes back on.

"Yeah yeah, I will," I assured her, throwing the panties in the garbage. "Now go make me some food woman! I'll be in the shower!" I kissed her cheek really quickly before walking towards the ajoint bathroom in my room.

She smacked my ass and replied, "You better hurry up! It's already 7:00!"

* * *

"We're late."

"We're not late."

"It's 8:20. School started twenty minutes ago."

"It's fine, we're just..fashionably late."

"It's not fine. I have math first period and you have science."

"I do?"

"Britt.."

I reached out to turn down the radio in the car only to have Santana's hand smack it away. "My car, my radio. No changing the volume, you know that." She was pretending to be angry but after a few seconds she caved in and smiled instead.

I grabbed her right hand from the steering wheel and entwined our fingers together. "Babe, I know you're nervous about today, but everything will okay. Okay?" Truth was I knew Santana was a lot more than nervous, she was terrified. She had been elected valedictorian which as first I thought was some sort of dictator over Valentine's day but after she explained it to me I understood why she was so scared about it. They had to give a speech at graduation and Santana was never good at speaking in public.

We pulled up to a red light and Santana took her other hand off the steering wheel and put it on top of our hands we were already holding. "I know. You'll be there with me, so I know I have nothing to worry about." I smiled at her and she smiled back before she leaned in to kiss my lips. We stayed like that, unmoving, for multiple seconds until we heard someone honking behind up which forced us to pull apart and realize the light was now green. We laughed as Santana put her foot on the gas and started driving again.

We got to school in record time, only a half hour late for first period. As we were making our way to our lockers a few teachers stopped us and asked us why we weren't in class. I just told them that I got lost and Santana was helping me find my way back to class. It worked each time like a charm.

Santana walked me to my class first because it was closest and along the way I had her hand held tightly in my own. Ever since we came out at school I've been so happy that we could finally hold hands and kiss in front of everyone so we did at every moment we could.

"Thanks for walking me to class," I said once we were close to the room.

"Anything for you," Santana smiled. I smiled back at her and let go of her hand so I could hug her. I leaned back from the hug just enough so that I could kiss her lips and I tightened my hold on her a little. I loved being all lovey dovey with her in public, even if people looked at us funny I didn't care.

I was just about to pull away from the kiss when I felt something smooth and velvety slide across my lower lip. I smiled into the kiss and opened my mouth slightly to allow Santana's tongue to meet mine. Well, actually they've met before, lots of times, but this was the first time today. Our tongue wrestled a little bit before I finally let Santana take over. She walked forward till my back hit the wall and pressed her body flush against mine. I was just about to wrap my leg around her hip when someone broke us up.

"You two are like freaking rabbits!"

Santana and I broke apart and she turned around to address Quinn. "At least I'm gettin' some, Fabray. Besides, if you had a girlfriend half as hot as mine, you'd know how hard it is not to be all over her every second of every day."

Quinn grimaced. "Okay, too much information, S. I'm just saying. You looked like you were about to start doing it right there."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're just jealous. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a girlfriend to make out with." Before I could stop her, Santana all but devoured my mouth with hers. I knew how this game worked. We would always make out in front of Quinn to bother her. Not that she was homophobic or anything, but it was funny to see her get all mad.

"Ugh, you guys are terrible!" she groaned before storming off into the class next to us.

Santana and I just broke apart laughing so hard we almost fell over.

"San, I really think we should stop kissing in front of her. I think sometimes it does get her a little upset," I said once our laughter subsided.

"Whatever, she's just jealous. And she's not here now so.." Santana trailed off as she leaned in to kiss me again.

I quickly ducked down and moved to the side to avoid her lips. "Ah-ah-ah," I sang and wagged my finger at her. "You're the one who said we needed to get to class and learn so don't try to suck me into having sweet lady kisses with you in the middle of the hall."

Santana pouted for all of a second and then smiled again. "Yeah, I know. You're just so irresistible sometimes."

"I know I am," I agreed happily and moved to her to peck her lips for no more than half a second. "Now get to class, missy. I'll see you at lunch?"

Santana nodded. "Yup, I'll meet you at your locker. Have a good class."

"You too!"

* * *

I stood at my locker after the last bell of the day rang and tried to get it open. I was always forgetting my combination even though I wrote it down so many times. It probably didn't help that I always put the papers that I wrote it down on inside my locker though. I was just about to give up and call Santana to ask her what it was but instead I felt arms slither around my waist and pull me into a tight, warm hug.

"Can't remember your combination, baby?" Santana whispered into my ear. I shivered.

"No..I forgot it again," I said lamely. I was a little embarrassed that I kept forgetting it even though it's been the same since I moved to this school. Santana turned me around in her arms and pecked my lips.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, okay? Hell, if I didn't have a note in my phone with my combination on it, all of freshman year I would have had to go down to the office everyday and ask for it." I laughed at that and didn't really feel all that silly or lame anymore.

Santana let go of my waist and tapped my hip so I could move out of the way. She dialed in the three numbers and opened my locker up with one try. I smiled sheepishly at her. "Thank you, you're the best."

Santana smiled. "I know I am, now give me some kisses as a reward." She was always such a dork. Nevertheless I leaned down and placed my hands on her hips and pulled her into a soft kiss. After a few seconds we pulled apart smiling and I turned around to get my things from my locker and put them into my bag.

"I don't know how you do that every time," Santana said after a few seconds.

"Do what?"

"Make me breathless every time you kiss me," she clarified.

I turned around and saw her blushing. "You're a dork, you know that?"

"Yeah well, you make me a dork."

"We should change your name to _Dork_tana instead of Santana," I suggested, trying my hardest not to laugh.

Santana cringed. "Uh, no thanks. I love you, Britt, but there's no way I'm changing my name to Dorktana for you, sorry."

I pouted my lips and gave her my best puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

Santana held her serious face for a few seconds before breaking again. "Fine."

I giggled and clapped my hands together. "Wow, I really do have you w-"

"Do not finish that sentence." Santana said firmly.

"Whi-"

"Britt I'm serious. I'm never kissing you again if you finish it."

We held eye contact for a few moments, neither one of us backing down. Finally before she could interrupt again I said as quickly as I could, "Whipped."

"I am not whipped!"

"You so are."

Both of us looked to the side where we saw Noah Puckerman standing against the locker beside mine with his arms crossed. "You're more whipped than a whip."

"Clever as always, Puck," Santana replied, rolling her eyes at the Mohawk boy.

"Whatever, the joke doesn't matter. What matters is that you'll literally do anything Britt wants you to do without a second thought. You're seriously going to change your name to Dorktana?"

Santana blushed and turned away from him. She looked at me with pleading eyes, begging me to change the topic. I softly smiled at her. "She's not whipped, Puck, I was joking."

"Yeah sure, you think what you want, I'll think what I want. Deal?" We both nodded our heads. "Good. You ladies nervous for graduation?"

"A little bit," I admitted. "Are you?"

Puck shrugged. "Nah, not really. I can't wait to get out of this place, ya know?"

Santana turned to Puck and nodded her head. "I know exactly what you mean. Once the school year is all over, me and Britt are both leaving this loser town to go to New York." She turned to me after she said that, almost as if to confirm that that was still our plan. I smiled and linked my pinky with hers.

I could see Puck looking at us with a small smile of his own on his face out of the corner of my eye. He leaned off the locker and chuckled. "You two are so in love I'm surprised you're not puking rainbows."

"Wait you can puke rainbows?" I asked looking to him.

"It's just a figure of speech, Britt," Santana assured me. I made an 'O' with my mouth and nodded my head in understanding. "But yeah, so what, we're in love. Gotta problem with that, Puckerman?" she snapped at him. I knew she was joking though, she was still smiling.

"Nope, not a problem at all," Puck assured us, smiling back. "Anyways, I gotta go, catch you girls tonight."

"Bye, Puck!" we said at the same time and watched as he walked away from us. After he was gone I closed my locker and turned to Santana. "We're still going to New York, right?"

"Of course, Britt. Maybe not right after graduation, but somewhere in the summer we're going to move there and finally get married. That's the plan anyways, right?"

I smiled. "Right."

* * *

I was in the washroom, looking at myself, trying to make sure that the hat on top of my head was straight but every time I moved it, it just looked crooked. I walked out of the room and into my bedroom whining out, "Santana..help me make this straight."

I looked around after I got no reply. Santana was nowhere to be found in my room, her gown and hat were even still laid out on my bed. "San..?" I asked cautiously, I could have sworn she was here a minute ago..

Suddenly something grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth with their hand. I struggled to get out of the persons hold until I felt the hand that was covering my mouth slowly come off and move my hair to the side. I then felt soft and pouty lips touch my neck and I sighed, letting my whole body relax. Santana chuckled.

"I thought you were a bugler or something," I whispered. I didn't know why I was whispering but it felt like I should, so I did.

"Mm, nope, just me," Santana mumbled against my skin.

I let my head fall to the side and exposed more of my neck for her. "We should really be getting ready to go. Graduation starts in a few hours."

"We'll get ready later," she said, then bit down softly on my neck. My breath hitched slightly and my left hand came up to tangle in her hair and my right hand went straight to her hip. "Eager much?"

I giggled airily, "Shush you. Are you naked?" I asked, remembering how her clothes were still on the bed.

"Mm..maybe, why don't you turn around and check for yourself?"

I knew it was a trap, Santana did this all the time. She always distracted both of us whenever we had to get ready to go somewhere. And even though I knew that she was about to distract us again, I still turned around.

Right away her lips attached to mine and her arms wrapped around my neck. I placed my hands on her hips and pressed myself into her, biting her bottom lip and pulling away. She let out a little moan, I knew she loved it when I did that. I looked down at her body and wasn't very shocked to see she wasn't wearing any clothes.

"Naughty girl," I teased.

"Only for you." And with that she pushed me backwards onto my bed and crawled on top of me. Her lips found mine and her hands went to the bottom of the gown and pushed it up so she could slip her thigh between both my legs. She pushed her knee up against my center and I moaned into her mouth.

"God.. S-San we really have to get ready," I tried to say but it mostly just sounded like moans.

"Do you really want to stop?" she asked, and then started trailing her lips down my neck, sucking at my pulse point.

"No," I answered truthfully. "But we have to, babe. We have to leave in a half hour, remember?"

"Can't we just have a quickie?" she tried to negotiate. Seriously, this girl will do anything for sex.

I giggled. "We're just going to smell like sex after that and we don't have time to take another shower." Santana groaned and removed her lips from my skin, cradling her head into the crook of my neck. She looked so cute like that. "C'mon, babe. Get up!" I prompted and smacked her ass.

"Hey! That hurt," Santana said and picked her head up to look at me.

I smirked up at her. "You should put some clothes on then."

"Fine," she mumbled. "You're just jealous you don't have my hot bod."

I laughed. "Sure, that's what it is."

* * *

As the audience cheered and the seniors threw their hats up into the air, I wrapped my arms around Santana's body and picked her up, spinning her around and kissing her firmly on the lips in front of everyone. I could tell Santana was shocked by the kiss because of her hesitation but within seconds her arms were around my neck and she was pressing herself further into the kiss. I finally let her down, making sure her feet were planted on the stage before I kissed her again. We were the only two with our hats still on so without looking I tried my best to grab hold of Santana's cap. She grabbed mine, and we both threw each other's hat into the air at the same time, laughing into the others mouth.

This was the moment we've been waiting for, for four years. Being able to stand up here in front of everyone, cheering with all our friends, throwing our caps up in the air, knowing that our high school years are finally over. I looked around. Some people were hi-fiving their friends, some were jumping up and down, and some were even crying. I looked to Santana and saw that there were in fact tears brimming in her eyes. She gave me a watery smile and I laughed at her, feeling tears make their way into my own eyes.

"We did it," Santana yelled over everyone else's cheering. "We finally graduated."

"Which means that in a few months, we'll be moving away to New York together, getting married, and living on our own," I smiled widely at her.

Santana nodded her head, tears finally falling from her eyes and down her cheeks. She then wrapped her arms around me again and kissed me.

* * *

"Finally home!" I announced as me and Santana trudged into my room. I threw off my hat, walked straight to my bed and fell face first into the pillows. "Lungsht day evr. I'm sho egaushted."

I heard Santana's distance laughter come closer until I felt a dip in the bed. "I can't understand a word you're saying, babe. Your face is all shmushed in the pillows."

I lifted my head up a little so I could speak clearly and said, "I'm sleepy!" before face planting back into my pillows. Santana laughed again. I felt the bed go back up and I guessed that she got up from it. I heard her moving around but I was too tired to turn around and see what she was doing. After a minute or two I felt her hands on my shoulders, trying to take the gown off. I provided as little help as possible and it took well over three minutes for her to get my arms out of the holes. Once it was off she walked away again, leaving me only in the tank top and yoga shorts I wore underneath.

A breeze came into my room and I shivered a bit. "Shantna, I'm cold." Santana didn't say anything but I suddenly felt my whole back warm up as she lay down on top of me. I sighed and smiled into my pillows. "That's better."

Santana laughed and gathered up my hair, pulling it into a ponytail or a bun, I couldn't really tell. She then started placing small mouse kisses all over my exposed shoulder and back. She trailed them up to my ear and then whispered softly into it. "I am so proud of you."

I struggled to turn my face to the side so I could half look at her and speak clearly. "You are?"

"Mhm," she hummed, kissing my cheek.

I smiled at her then shifted around, almost toppling her over the side of the bed, until I was lying on my back looking up at her. "You really mean it?"

"Of course I do, B. You worked so hard this year and it really paid off. I couldn't be more proud."

It meant everything to me to know that Santana was proud of me. I knew it would have thrown off our whole plan and made her really upset if I didn't graduate this year, but I did. And hearing her say out loud she was proud of me was one of the best feelings ever. "Thank you," I said quietly before leaning my head up a few inches to meet her lips. It just was meant to be a short kiss but once Santana lowered her body completely on top of me and slid her tongue across my lower lip, I couldn't refuse the prompt to deepen it.

We kissed like that for a few minutes until Santana pulled away and rested her forehead on top of mine. "You know what we should do?" she asked quietly, a smirk playing on her lips.

"What?" I asked back, just as quietly.

"We should have I'm-proud-of-my-girlfriend-for-graduating sex."

I couldn't help but laugh at that and throw my arms around her tiny body, holding her close. "You know I would love to but that sounds like the kind of sex that's going to be wildly loud and meant for when no one's home except us."

"You're probably right," Santana agreed, kissing my nose. "You know I like it loud."

I giggled, "That you do." Santana rolled off me and helped both of us under the covers. Once we were both settled and comfortable, cuddled up in each other's arms, we looked at each other. Not that kind of awkward and uncomfortable staring we do when we're trying to make the other laugh, but staring in a way that's saying, 'wow I love you'.

"How did I get so lucky?" Santana asked after a few minutes.

I shrugged. "The same way I did."

"It wasn't an easy path to get to here," she admitted.

I nodded my head. "It definitely wasn't. There were ups and downs-"

"-tears and smiles-"

"-fights and make ups," I trailed off slightly. "But it was all worth it in the end. Right?"

Santana nodded and squeezed me tighter. "So worth it."

We sat quietly for a few more minutes until I spoke up again. "It's kind of funny how long and disastrous the story of 'Us' is, if you think about it."

"I suppose it is, but you know what?"

"What?"

Santana smiled softly and moved forward to kiss my lips for a few seconds before mumbling, "I wouldn't have it any other way," against them and kissed me again.

"Me neither," I mumbled and kissed her back.

I always thought of me and Santana as soul mates. There were so many things that happened during the path of getting where we are today that probably should have broke us up forever, but didn't. And even if it did, I know that we would have found our way back to each other again.

It's even funny when you think about how we met. In the beginning I hated Santana, and she hated me. Everyone knew we hated each other and no one would have thought that we would ever be able to be in the same room alone together, nevermind planning to go to New York alone together to get married.

And it was even funnier to think that what started this whole thing, was just a simple cup of coffee..

* * *

**A/N; hey y'all, merci for reading if ya did. basically how i'm thinking of playing this fic out is that this chapter is present time, but the next chapter and most after that will be in the past (but speaking in present tense) of how brittany and santana got to where they are today! i like reviews and stuff so leave me some if ya want c:**

** tumblr; pierce-benoist . tumblr . com**

**song used; Check On It - Beyoncé**


	2. Coffee

**March 2011**

"But I don't want to move!" I shouted across the dinner table at my parents.

"Honey," I turned to look at my dad as he spoke. "we know you don't want to but we have to."

"Your father's right, Brittany," my mom said with false sweetness laced in her voice. "It's not every day he gets offered a job that pays almost three times as much as it does now. Yes it is fifteen hours away but we're not passing up this opportunity."

I rolled my eyes and sat back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest. "Why do we need more money? We have enough," I snapped, more at my mom than at my dad.

I should have known this was going to happen. All month I've been seeing my parents on real estate websites. Whenever I asked them why they were looking at new homes they always just said they were looking and comparing prices in other places compared to where we live. Then with my dad telling me he has big news and my mom making my favorite dinner.. I should have seen it coming.

My dad sighed and sat back in his chair like me. "We barely get by, B. This house is years old and your sister has to use your hand me downs. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little extra money?"

"I guess.." I said hesitantly. "I just don't see why we have to travel half way across the country to get it! I don't want to move schools and leave all my friends here!"

Truth is, I actually wouldn't mind going to a new school. Not many people are nice to me at Olympia High. Sure I have a few friends - Artie, Sugar, and Tina - but people made fun of them too.

Artie's been in a wheelchair since he was a kid, so people are always bullying him and making cripple jokes at him. But he's actually a really nice guy, a little nerdy, but nice all the same. For a few years he had the biggest crush on me, and it was weird because he didn't even try to keep it a secret. He'd ask me out at least once or twice a week. After two years of being rejected, he finally got the point and gave up on the idea of 'us'. I still catch him staring at my boobs every so often though.

Tina's clothing style is goth and she's the only person who dresses that way at school so people aren't very accepting of it. She used to talk with a stutter too but after a while she admitted she was faking it so people wouldn't pay attention to her. I still don't know how that would get people to ignore her but I just went along with it. She's really shy but she's an amazing friend. And even though she dresses like a vampire sometimes, she's really good with clothes and fashion. She's even helped me out with some outfit choices for a date a few times. Not that I get asked out on dates a lot, the boys at my school think I'm weird.

Sugar is my best friend; I've known her all my life. Our moms were friends when they were teenagers and they got pregnant at the same time and gave birth to us at the same time in the same hospital. I was born in room 204, she was born in room 203. So we've been friends since birth, literally. She's also rich. Like, _super_ rich. She lives in a mansion and her daddy gets her whatever she wants. Usually rich people are popular at my school and people like them but since she hangs out with me, Artie, and Tina, people automatically deem her a loser. Well, there's that, and the fact that she tells everyone she has self diagnosed aspergers.

People don't like me because I'm not exactly..smart. I usually get the answers wrong in class and I don't know how to read a calendar so people laugh when I come to school wearing shorts in the middle of winter. When they think I'm not listening, they call me names like stupid and dumb blonde, but I always hear them saying it and it hurts. A lot.

Even if they make fun of me and bully me I'd still rather go through that than to have to go to a new school and meet all new friends. Making the friends I have now was hard enough, I don't want to go through that again.

"You think I want to leave everyone I've met here?" my mom asked. _Always_ makes things about her. "You think I won't miss having dinner on the Motta's yacht? Or having Christmas at their house in one of their three mansions?" I roll my eyes. "Brittany, we all have to make sacrifices. Yes, I know you'll miss your friends, especially Sugar, but family comes first and we'll be better off with more money."

I uncross my arms and slam my hands on the table, "This isn't fair! Why don't I get a say in this?" I asked, leaning forward and shooting daggers at my mom with my eyes. I didn't mean to get this angry, I usually don't get angry ever, but this just isn't fair.

"Brittany," my mom said sternly. "this is not up for discussion. Your father is taking the job as the CEO of the company and we're moving. That is that. Alright?" She looked at me expectantly. I nod my head once. "Good. We leave on Sunday."

"Sunday?" I ask incredulously. "But that's tomorrow!"

"It is," my mom agreed, taking a sip of her earl grey tea.

I scoffed. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" I demanded.

"Because we knew this was how you were going to react, B," my dad said calmly. I looked at him and saw in his eyes how he was begging me to calm down. I barely nodded at him and willed myself to take a few deep breaths.

"Fine," I said shortly, trying my best not to explode. "I guess I'll go pack then." And with that I pushed away from the table and got up, walking out of the kitchen before either of my parents could stop me.

The second I walked into my room I turned around and slammed my door behind me. I knew my parents hated it when I did that but I could care less right now, they were making me so frustrated! Especially my mom.

Why couldn't they have just told me about this earlier? At least give me some time to say goodbye to the few friends that I have. How am I even supposed to tell them that I'm moving across the country? _Oh, hey guys, sorry this is last minute, but I'm moving to Lima, Ohio. Bye! I'll be sure to write!_ I couldn't just do that to them, mostly to Sugar. She'd hate me forever if I just left without telling her the second I found out.

I fell onto my bed and looked to the side where my phone was sitting on my nightside table. I could just call Sugar now and ask her to sleep over..at least then I'll be spending as much time with her as possible before I leave and probably never see her again.

Figuring that was the best thing to do right now, I reached out and grabbed my phone, dialing in Sugar's numbers and trying to word together in my head exactly what I was going to say to her.

* * *

"This is so unfair."

"I know."

"They can't just pack you up and ship you off to a new town."

"Apparently they can."

"You're going to have to make all new friends."

"Mhm."

"Go to a whole new school."

"I know.."

"Maybe my dad can _buy_ Lima!"

I stopped pacing in my room to look at Sugar. I opened my mouth to say something, but instead just shook my head and closed it again, continuing to pace. After I called Sugar and told her what was going on, she demanded that she spend the night at my house for one last sleep over before I move. Obviously I couldn't say no to that so as quickly as she could, she packed an overnight bag and had her maid drive her straight to my house only ten minutes after we hung up.

I stopped pacing again; I was getting kind of dizzy now, and walked over to my bed where Sugar was seated. "I don't know what I'm going to do," I mumbled, looking down at my lap. "I mean, it was hard enough making friends the first time, now I'm going to have to do it all over again. But this time it'll be worse because I won't have you there with me."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sugar scoot closer to me. Then I felt her arms go around my body and she pulled me into a hug. I hadn't realized I was on the verge of tears until she was holding me, and now that I realized this is one of the last times I'll ever get to hug her, I couldn't keep the tears back. A chocked sob escaped my mouth and I tightened my grasp on her, hiding my head in the crook of her neck.

"Shh," she soothed into my ear, rubbing small circles on my back. "Everything's going to be okay."

"It's not going to be okay though," I argued, pulling back from the hug. I knew I probably looked like a baby crying over this but I didn't care. "I'm moving away and I'm never going to see you again!"

"You don't know that. My daddy's rich remember? If I tell him that I want to visit you he'll just tell his pilot to get the jet ready and he'll fly me down to..wherever you're going to be living again." Sugar grabbed my hands with her and forced me to look up at her. "And if that doesn't work, I'll just have my daddy's secret agents kidnap you and I'll hide you in my closet," she said with a shrug.

As sad as I was feeling, I couldn't help but laugh at that. Sugar always knew how to cheer me up. "You do realize that my mom would probably kill you if you kidnapped me, right?"

She shrugged again. "Yeah well, your mom is kind of a bitch. Sorry, aspergers."

"Okay, for like, the hundredth time, you don't actually have aspergers. And I know she is," I said with a sigh. It wasn't that my mom was..that word, it was just that she wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world. She always gets mad at me when I bring home bad report cards, or if I do something that is classified as stupid to her. The only reason why she was even friends with Sugars mom was because she was rich.

"You should just run away from home," Sugar said after a minute. "I did once. Until I realized I left my wallet behind and went back for it. Then once I got back to my house I was just too tired to run away again so I stayed."

I laughed again. "I don't know how you do it, but you always make me laugh. Thanks Sugar."

Sugar smiled at me and hugged me again. "No problem, B. Now, let's make this the most awesomest sleep over you've ever had! I'll choose a movie and you get the popcorn, okay?"

I smiled back and nodded my head, "Definitely. You want extra butter?" I asked as I hopped off my bed.

"Do I ever _not_ want extra butter?" she asked, looking at me like the answer was obvious.

"Now that I think about it..no, you don't. You might wanna watch that though, do you know how many calories are in butter?"

Sugar thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No..do you?"

"Nope. Not a clue!" I giggled out. I don't even know why, but I started laughing really hard at that and after a second Sugar was too. It wasn't even that funny but we both managed to end up on the floor, laughing our heads off, unable to stop.

Hours later I was laying in my bed next to Sugar, wide away, staring up at the ceiling. We went to bed over an hour ago but I couldn't fall asleep, I wasn't even a little bit tired. There was too much going on in my head and it was keeping me wide away. It's like my body is tired but my mind has drank 27 energy drinks or something.

Sugar was right, this _was_ the most awesomest sleep over ever. We watched three different movies, _The Little Mermaid_, _13 Going On 30_, and of course, _Mean Girls_. That's always how sleepovers worked with us. I chose a movie I wanted to watch, she chose a movie she wanted to watch, and the last movie we picked together. I found it funny how the third movie was always _Mean Girls_.

After that we just stayed up talking about celebrities and gossip and boys. Well, I talked about boys, she didn't. No one except me knows, but Sugar actually plays for the other team. She told me a few months ago that she felt like I was the only one she could trust with something so serious and personal. And when I asked what it was, she told me that she doesn't like boys, she likes girls.

I was really shocked at first, I mean, after Artie gave up on me he started to like Sugar and she always looked like she was into him too. So the thought that she was actually gay never even crossed my mind. She got scared when I didn't say anything right away but after I told her I was totally okay with it, she felt a lot better. Her parents don't know and she's so scared how they'll react if they found out that, that's why she usually stays at my house. My parents lover her and treat her like she's their third daughter. The thing is though, my mom is one of the most homophobic people there are, so Sugar hates her and we both agreed she can never find out. My dad's never said anything bad about gay people, so she likes him a lot more.

After two hours of just talking, Sugar started to get tired so we crawled under the covers and she fell asleep almost instantly. I've been laying here awake ever since. I think I can't fall asleep because I'm scared of what's going to happen at this new school. People already don't like me here so are people not going to like me there? All my friends, well the three of them, tell me that I'm a really nice girl and I'm super funny, people just don't give me a chance and they label me as a loser right away.

I sighed and shifted from on my back to on my side, facing Sugar. I looked at her for a bit until I realized that it was really creepy to stare at someone while they slept. So I shifted again but accidentally kicked Sugar and woke up her.

"Mm..Britt? You okay?" she asked, still half asleep.

I stopped moving and turned back onto my side. "Yeah," I whispered. "I just can't sleep."

I thought that Sugar fell back asleep because for a few minutes she didn't say anything. Then she mumbled something that sounded like 'turn around', so I switched from my left side to my right and waited for further instruction. Instead, I felt Sugar's arm being draped on my waist and her front was suddenly pressed against my back. I inhaled sharply because it startled me but within seconds I was relaxed again.

"This okay?" she mumbled out.

It wasn't exactly something we normally did, cuddling I mean. We did it sometimes if one of us was sad and needed to be cheered up, but other than that we usually slept without touching at all. It was a little weird, but I had to admit, this did make me feel better. Maybe I could actually get to sleep now.

"Yeah," I replied. "It's okay."

* * *

Santana Lopez opened her eyes and slammed her hand down on her alarm, silencing the blaring sound that had already given her a headache. Sitting upright in her bed, she stretched her arms out in front of her and twisted her body around, sighing satisfyingly when she heard her back crack and her whole body loosened up a bit.

She turned and threw her legs over the side of her bed and yawned, getting up to walk over to her window and open up her curtains. Her parents were so obsessed with saving energy that they told her only to turn the lights on if she needed to. Lucky for her it was bright outside so she didn't have to waste up any electricity. She rolled her eyes to herself at the thought of her parent's ridiculous rules.

Even though she loved her mother and father very much, she had to admit they were a little insane sometimes. _Don't turn on the lights unless you have to, only take one hot shower a week at the most, don't turn up the heater unless you're absolutely freezing, don't turn on the AC unless you're close to fainting_, the rules just went on and on.

Finally opening her curtains, Santana squinted then covered her eyes at the intruding light that shone right onto her face. That was one thing that she hated about having to actually open her curtains, she was always blinded for a few seconds until her eyesight adjusted. Once she could see again, she noticed in the driveway of the house next to hers, there was a huge white truck. Before she had any more time to figure out what the truck was doing there, her mother was already calling her down for breakfast.

Santana usually wasn't a morning person, especially a Monday morning person, so she was grumpy as usual. She dragged her feet down the stairs and into the kitchen where her father was sitting at the head of the table, eating some pancakes and her mother was running around the kitchen, cooking god knows how many different things.

"Oh, Santana, you're already down. I expected you to take at least another five more minutes," her mother said, rushing back to the stove to flip a pancake. "Your breakfast isn't quite ready yet."

Santana shrugged even though the older Latina couldn't see it because her back was turned. "It's okay, mami. I'm late anyways, I don't think I can eat a full breakfast." She then walked over to the table, grabbing a banana on her way, and sat down in her usual spot to the right of her father. "Morning, dad."

"Morning," her dad mumbled, mouth full of pancake mush. Santana grimaced but couldn't help but smile at her father's silliness.

After Santana had finished her banana, she threw the peel in the garbage and ran up her stairs to her bedroom to take a quick shower. She knew that she was pressing it and she would probably be late but she hadn't showered since yesterday morning and there was no way she was going to go to school with greasy hair.

She walked into her room, crossing her arms at her waist, gripping the bottom of her sleep t-shirt and pulling it over her head, tossing it to the floor next to her. That was one thing about Santana; she didn't like to put clothes away. When she took them off, they went straight to the floor and stayed there until she needed it again. Her mother always complained that it made her room look messy, and when they had guests over she always made the teen pick up every single piece of clothing and put it away. Santana had always countered her mom saying that with the statement, '_I didn't know we were having our guests up in my room this time_,' to which her mother would always say with a sigh, '_Just do as I ask, Santana, and please don't make this a bigger deal than it needs to be_.' After that Santana would usually give in and put all her clothes away. It's not like her room would stay clean for long though because by the next day there would be clothes all over the floor again.

Taking off the shorts she slept in, Santana looked outside through her window to see that the window of the house next to hers, the one that had the white truck in the front, was open. And there, sitting on the windowsill sleeping the morning away, laid the fattest cat that the Latina had ever seen in her life. She guessed it had to weight twenty five pounds easy, maybe even more.

While Santana was frozen in shock by the sight of a cat that big, she was pulled back to reality when she heard the door of the room open and it sounded like someone was walking in. She quickly moved from in front of the window so whoever was coming in wouldn't see her half naked, and continued to take off her clothes. Once she was almost naked, she faintly heard a voice coming from the other house

"Hey, Lord Tubbington! There you are, I was looking for you."

Santana furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion, because really, who the hell would name their cat _Lord Tubbington_. She peaked out a little so that she could see the other window and saw that no one was there, and the cat was now gone. Santana sighed in relief and quickly walked over to her curtains, closing them, before making her way to the bathroom to shower.

* * *

I woke up to my dad shaking my leg and mumbling something out that I couldn't really understand in my half asleep state.

"Mm..wha?" I asked sleepily, trying to open one eye to look up at him.

"C'mon, Britt. Get up kiddo, we're here," I heard my dad say. I let out a really big yawn, then closed my eye again, snuggling further into the pillow I had been sleeping on. I heard my dad sigh then felt a small gust of air blow by as he pulled away from where I was laying. "Sorry to do this, but you leave me no choice."

I was almost already asleep when suddenly my whole body was jerked awake and I sat up straight in my seat as the car horn sounded loudly. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest and I looked around until I realized I had fallen asleep on the drive to our new house. And my dad had just honked the horn as loud as he could to wake me up.

I turned to see him laughing his head off, probably laughing at me considering I almost just had a heart attack. "Dad! That's so not funny!" I yelled at him, reaching at an awkward angle to slap his arm. Even as terrifying and mean as it was, I couldn't help myself from smiling a little, and I eventually starting giggling along with him.

"You're mean," I mumbled after we had stopped laughing.

"I told you to get up," my dad said with a shrug. "You didn't listen to me so I had to go to drastic measures." I rolled my eyes at him and laughed again.

I stopped laughing, however, when my mom came over with her eyes narrowed at the both of us and got mad at us for goofing off and probably waking up the entire neighborhood considering it was nearly 6:30 in the morning. She then told us to get out of the car and start help bringing things inside.

My dad gave me a look that said, '_Jeez, who spiked her cereal?_' and got out of the car to go help her. Before he got too far though, I called him back over through the open window and asked, "Where's LT?"

"I already brought his cage in upstairs and let him out so he could get used to this place as quick as possible," my dad said with a smile. I smiled back at him saying thanks and he walked away.

I let out a sigh as I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. It was only then that I realized my little sister, Alexandria, was still fast asleep. I laughed and wondered how deep of a sleeper she must be to have slept through the car horn _and_ my mom yelling at me and my dad.

I stepped out of the car, pillow in hand, and ran up the house which already had the door open. I walked in and looked around. It felt weird to know that this was where I was going to be living now, my new house. It looked nothing like our old one, it was a lot bigger and from the looks of it, wasn't as old as my other house either. I threw my pillow into what I guessed was going to soon be the living room, and jogged back outside to get my sister.

I opened the door to her side as quietly as possible, trying not to wake her, and leaned in so I could unbuckle her seatbelt. She looked so cute I thought, wrapped up in her blanket, head resting on her pillow and her favorite stuffed toy tucked safely underneath her chin. I smiled at her for a few seconds before my mom started yelling at me, asking me what I was going and why I wasn't helping. Her yelling startled me so much then I jumped up and banged my head on the top of the car roof.

"Ow.." I grumbled, leaned back out of the car and rubbing my head. I locked eyes with my mom and she just gave me a pointed look before walking back into the house. I rolled my eyes at her. I swear I do that so much that my eyes are going to get permanently stuck like that, and for the rest of my life they'll just be rolling around, unable to stop.

"Britt?"

I looked back into the car and realized that my sister was awake now and was looking around, rather confused, like she didn't know where she was or how we got there. It always takes her a while after she wakes up to come to her senses. While my mom found that annoying, my dad and I found it cute and funny.

"Hey, Alex," I whispered, leaning back into the car to undo her seatbelt. "You sleepy?"

Alex just nodded her head and closed her eyes. She looked like she had dozed off again and I giggled quietly to myself. Even though Alex was now 6, she still slept as much as a new born baby did. I tucked the blanket around her better before picking her up in my arms, grabbing her pillow and her stuffed penguin in my other hand to make sure they didn't fall. Alex immediately curled herself into my body, her little arms wrapped around my neck and her ankles locked behind my back. Her head was hidden in the crook of my neck and I felt her let out a deep sigh before she fell back asleep.

I turned around and closed the door with my hip before walking away from the car and into the house. On my way I passed my dad who mouthed out, '_Is she sleeping?_' I nodded my head and mouthed to him that I was going to take her somewhere upstairs where there wouldn't be anyone moving stuff up there for a while to let her continue sleeping. I grabbed my pillow from the living room and continued to walk through the house, finding the stairs quickly and climbing them.

There were five different rooms upstairs - a bathroom, the master bedroom, and three bedrooms. Looking around I walked into the closed room and threw my pillow onto the ground near the wall. I then set Alex down onto the pillow, keeping her head up so I could slide her own pillow underneath her head. Once she was all settled and comfortable, wrapped up in her blanket again, I gave her the penguin and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind me.

I was just about to go back downstairs when I heard my mom yelling at one of the movers.

"Be careful with that! Where were you raised? In a freaking cave? That cabinet cost money and if you so much as scratch it with your clumsiness I _will_ make you pay for it!"

I stopped walking and decided that maybe it was a better idea to check out the upstairs rather than going down there and listening to my mom yell about nonsense. I went into the master bedroom first since it was right across from where I had laid Alex down to sleep. It was really big with huge windows that were covered by curtains and even had its own bathroom attached to the side. Inside the washroom there was a one person shower and a bathtub, along with all the other things you find in a bathroom.

That would be the washroom that obviously my parents shared, the one that me and Alex were going to share was a little less glamorous. It has one bigger shower that was a bath and shower in one and there wasn't really much space. I didn't mind though, it's not like Alex was that big that we both couldn't fit in there at the same time. Besides, all she really needed the bathroom for was to shower and pee so it's not like she'd even be in there all the time while I was trying to get in there, too.

I checked out one of the bedrooms that was slightly smaller than Alex's and I guessed that this was going to be this guest room since I didn't have any other siblings to put in there. It was just small and simple, nothing too special about it. Walking out of it, I decided to go check on my sister, just to make sure she was still sleeping and didn't wake up not knowing where she was. I was about to open the door when something caught my eye.

The door to the third bedroom, the one that was going to be mine, was slightly open. I pushed it open all the way and walked in, smiling at what I found.

"Hey, Lord Tubbington! There you are, I was looking for you," I said happily, making my way over to my favorite feline friend.

I went to go pick him up and out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw movement coming from inside the room of the house next to mine. Instead of prying though, I just shrugged and picked Tubbs up off the windowsill and carried him out of my room. Softly as I could, I opened the door to the room Alex was sleeping in and plopped Lord Tubbington onto the ground inside before closing the door again. I know my dad wanted him to get used to the house but Alex always loved when she woke up to Tubbs sleeping beside her.

As I started to make my way down the stairs, I heard my dad calling my name, asking me to help him move something into the house. I looked around the upstairs one more time. Sure, it wasn't what I liked exactly, and it was going to take some getting used to, but I guess it couldn't be all that bad, right?

* * *

_"All the single ladies, now put your hands up. Up in the club, we just broke up. I'm doing my own little thing. Decided to dip and now you wanna trip. 'Cause another brother noticed me. I'm up on him, he up on me. Don't pay him any attention. Just cried my tear, for three good years. Ya can't be mad at me."_

The next morning I woke up to my alarm going off, playing Beyoncé's hit song, _Single Ladies_. I don't know why, but I've always loved that song. Actually I love anything Beyoncé does, she's the queen of music and everything she does is amazing. People say it's weird that I once had a dream where I danced back up for her on a tour, but I don't think so. That'd be like, a dream come true.

I turned onto my side and reached over to turn off my alarm but got interrupted when my eyes were suddenly looking at fur and my hand that had stopped midair was now being licked with a sandpapery tongue. I giggled when I realized that it was just Lord Tubbington and he had fallen asleep next to my head. Thankfully it was _on_ my pillow this time. One time I woke up and I thought I was blind because I tried to open my eyes and all I saw was black. Turns out Tubbs like to sleep on my face sometimes.

I reached my arm over him and grabbed my phone to unlock it. My background popped up and it made me smile for a few seconds, but my smile turned into a frown really quick. It was a picture my dad took of me and Sugar before we left on Sunday. We were hugging goodbye and my dad couldn't help but snap a shot of it for memories. I smiled sadly at my background again before I went into the alarm app to turn off the music. I put my phone back on my nightside table and sat up in my bed, stretching my arms out in front of me before pulling the covers back and swinging my feet over the side of the bed.

Today marked my first day at my new school, and I was beyond nervous. I kept thinking about how the kids were at my old school and how mean they were to me and couldn't help but believe that the kids at this school were going to be just as mean. And this time if they bullied me, and called me names, it was going to be so much worse because I didn't have any friends at all. Zero. At least at Olympia I had Sugar and the other guys, but here, I had no one.

I trudged out of my room and down the stairs to eat something for breakfast. My mom was already up, standing against the counter in the kitchen, looking at something on her phone while drinking a cup of what I would guess was tea. "Morning," I mumbled as I grabbed some bread and put it into the toaster. All my mom did was hum back in response and I didn't even bother to roll my eyes this time.

My mom could be really mean sometimes. Well, she was always sort of mean and not really polite but sometimes it got really bad. She's really selfish and thinks everything is about her and only her and if it doesn't have to do with her then it's not important. She was always on her phone, texting, or doing something work related and she hardly ever paid attention to me and Alex. It wasn't that she wasn't a good mother, I still loved her and everything of course, it was just that she didn't try to be a mom.

My toast popped up and I walked to the fridge to get the butter and jelly. As I was making my toast yummy with jelly, I turned my head to my mom. She was still in the exact same position she was when I walked in the room, like she hadn't even moved. The only thing proving she had moved and wasn't a statue was that her tea was almost done.

"So," I started casually. "Dad at work?"

"Mhm, left early this morning," she said quietly, taking another sip of her tea.

Then there was a silence and I didn't know what to say. "Does he like it there?" I asked, trying desperately to think of something better to say but my mind was drawing a blank.

My mom looked up from her phone for the first time and gave me an incredulous look. "It's his first day, Brittany, and he's only been there a few hours. How am I supposed to know?"

All I did was look at her with wide eyes and shrug my shoulders shakily. I wasn't scared of my mom, I was just embarrassed that I asked such a stupid question.

"Well use your head next time," she said and went back to her phone.

I stood frozen for a couple seconds, just staring at my mom before I snapped out of it and continued to spread the jelly across my toast in silence.

* * *

Santana dragged her feet to her locker heavier than usual today. Usually Tuesday mornings weren't as bad as Monday mornings, but today was the worst one she's had in a long time. She felt grumpier than usual and she wasn't even exactly sure why. Nothing had recently happened that would have caused her to be extra grumpy, maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

She opened her locker and got out her books for first period. She started to put them into her bag until she realized she had grabbed the completely wrong binder and textbook. Groaning loudly, she put the wrong ones back into her locker and thought for a moment about what period she even had first.

"Well you look terrible."

Santana turned her head to the side and was met with the unmistakable face of Kurt Hummel. She and Kurt met the beginning of freshman year when they both just so happened to try out for the Cheerios and they both got it. Kurt didn't really dance much but he could sing and Sue Sylvester thought that it would only make her routines more outstanding if she had something singing during them. They were paired up on the first day of practise and they've been friends ever since.

"Gee thanks," Santana grumbled out. "Just what every girl wants to hear in the morning."

Kurt rolled his eyes and leaned against the locker next to the brunette's, looking down at her. If there was anything the boy knew better than singing, it was fashion, but more importantly, skin care. Within seconds he noticed the dark bags under the Latina's eyes and that she hadn't even moisturized.

Feeling his eyes on her, Santana turned her head slowly to the side again, only to see Kurt looking at her still. "Would you stop staring at me? I know I look awful."

"Hon," Kurt said sympathetically. "You don't look awful, you just look tired. Have you even had your coffee this morning?"

Santana yawned and shook her head. "Didn't have time, woke up late."

Kurt dramatically rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Well that's your problem! That's why you're so tired," he said, looking down at his watch. "We have a few minutes before class, wanna go grab one in the cafeteria before class begins?"

Santana looked into the little mirror she had in her locker and saw the bags under her eyes and just how terrible and tired she actually looked. Her cheer uniform wasn't even straight and Sue would kill her if she was wearing it improperly.

"Definitely, let's go."

* * *

I walked through the school feeling more nervous than I ever have in my entire life. I was clutching onto the straps of my backpack with one hand, the other holding a class schedule, as I walked through the halls. I had just gone to the office to get my locker number, combination, and my classes, and for the past five minutes I've been trying to find my locker but it's like everyone already knew that I was a loser and decided to pull a prank by painting it invisible or something.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. Class was going to start in five minutes and I still haven't even found out where my first period was. I looked around to observe my surroundings and noticed I was in front of the cafeteria, and the first thing I saw was exactly what I needed right now. Coffee.

My parents never let me drink coffee because they say it makes me jumpy and hyper, but I know that it also calms me down weirdly enough. Thinking that I had nothing to lose, I stepped through the doors of the cafeteria and got into line to buy the coffee.

The woman that made it for me was really nice to me, especially when I told her I was new after she asked me why she never saw me before. She told me she has a daughter that goes to this school too and she was the new kid a little while ago. I think she said her name was Marley or something, and she told me her name was Mrs. Rose, but I could call her Millie. She even tried to give the coffee to me free but I insisted on paying, I didn't want to be given special treatment that would make me stand out when all I wanted to do was blend in.

When she told me the price, I searched my pockets for any loose change but I didn't find any. I checked my front pockets, back pockets, even my shirt pocket but nothing.

"I think there's some in my bag," I told her while I stepped out of line slightly in case anyone else came in to buy something. I took off my bag and put it on the ground before I sat down on the knees and opened it up, searching all the compartments in my bag for money.

While I was searching, I saw two other students that were wearing cheerleading outfits come up in line and buy something. I tried not to be embarrassed by sitting on the floor, searching through my bag, but I don't think they noticed me.

I was just about to give up on trying to find money when at the very bottom of my bag, I found a toonie. I smiled to myself and stood up to go pay for the coffee, but what happened next was definitely not what I had hoped for to happen on my first day.

I guess those two other kids really didn't see me because as soon as I stood up, one of them smashed into me and spilled their coffee all over the both of us. It was really hot, and it sort of scared me how she just came out of nowhere so I screamed by accident. It wasn't that embarrassing though because she screamed too. Even the boy next to her did.

"Oh my god! Santana are you okay?"

I dared to look up and saw that the girl in front of me had her eyes closed tight and her hands up like she was frozen or something. The boy next to her looked really worried about her, and suddenly I felt really embarrassed again.

Finally the girl started moving but I wished she had stayed a statue. She opened her eyes and glared at me so hard that I was worried I might scream again because she looked so scary.

"What the hell is your problem?" she half asked, half yelled at me. I was too scared to answer so I just stood there, frozen like how she was a few seconds ago. "Hello?" she asked, sounding a lot more annoyed now. "Hey Blondie! I'm talking to you!"

I finally snapped out of whatever frozen trance I was in and looked around. I looked at the ground and saw the brown liquid that was covering both our shoes, my bag, and part of our legs. I looked at the boy who looked just as scared as I thought I did. He was looking at the girl, Santana I guess her name was, who was looking at me like she wanted to kill me. I looked past her at Millie and she just looked shocked and like she didn't know what to do.

"I..I-I'm sorry," I stuttered out.

The girl laughed bitterly and rolled her eyes. "You're _sorry_? Sorry? Well sorry isn't going to make up for what you just did! I mean look at me, you got my cheer uniform covered in coffee!" She was starting to look even angrier right now and I started to feel a little less scared and I little more angry now. Who was this girl to just yell at me like that? How was I supposed to know she was walking in front of me? And it was kinda her fault, I mean, she should have saw me sitting there on the floor unless she's blind.

"Santana..let it go, you're scaring her," the boy said calmly.

"Oh? Am I scaring you, Blondie?" she asked sarcastically. I didn't say anything. "Well? Am I?" she prodded. The more she talked to me the more mad I was getting and if she kept this up, I was sure I was going to explode.

"For god's sake will you fucking say _something_?" she yelled at me. Then I snapped.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I asked, pointing a finger at her. She seemed to be taken aback by my little outburst because her eyes widened and her mouth opened like she was going to say something but nothing came out. To be honest I was a surprised with myself too.

If I had caught her off guard she was definitely on guard now because she was narrowing her eyes at me and took a step closer to me. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, did you not hear me? I said who the hell do you think you are? You can't just yell at me for something that was my fault," I said, trying to stay calm so I wouldn't make a scene but it was getting to be really hard.

"Uh, well, it kinda is your fault, dumbass. You fucking came out of nowhere and made me spill my coffee," she countered. I could already tell this wasn't going to end well. The boy and Millie were still frozen in their spots and it seemed like Santana and I were the only ones who were even here.

"You can't talk to me like that, you know, you don't even know who I am. And it's not my fault that you didn't see me there on the floor. If you did then you wouldn't have walked right into me!"

"Well what the hell were you doing on the floor in the first place?" she asked, leaning back on one leg and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I was trying to find my money to buy a coffee," I said, pointing to the cup on the counter that was probably cold by now.

Santana laughed, but not in a bitter or sarcastic way. It was the kind of laugh that kids at Olympia laughed. Where they weren't trying to mock you, or make fun of you, but they were actually laughing _at_ you. "Seriously?" she asked still chuckling. "What are you, a baby? Who the hell sits on the floor to count their money? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever seen or heard of in my life."

That was when I had enough. It was one thing to make fun of me, and laugh at me, I was used to it. But when people called me stupid, I was still really sensitive about that, and I wasn't about to let what everyone used to do to me happen again. Instead of saying anything back, I walked over to the counter, quickly whispering to Millie, "Get the principal before I die, please," before I grabbed the cup of coffee and walked back to where I was standing in front of Santana.

"What's that?" she asked, sounding a little confused by what I was doing.

I smirked because now I had totally caught her off guard. "Well, this is a cup of coffee," I said, taking off the lid. I dipped my finger into it just to make sure it was cold. As much as I didn't like this girl, I really didn't want to actually hurt her. Before she could stop me or realized what I was doing, I put the cup over top of her head and flipped it over, emptying the whole thing onto to her head. "Now _you're_ the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life."

At that moment, I felt pretty proud of myself. Never in my life have I ever stood up to bullies and here I was, first day of a brand new school, doing just that. I smirked at how ridiculous Santana looked, standing there with coffee all over her head, she was so shocked that she was frozen again. But my smirk soon faded when I heard the boy beside her say under his breath, "Oh..you shouldn't have done that.." I was about to ask him why but instead I felt hands pushing my shoulders and next thing I knew I was on the floor with Santana on top of me.

"Who the FUCK do you think you are?" she yelled at me, winding her hand back for what I guessed was going to be a punch. I was so scared that I was screaming at the top of my lungs and covered my face with my hands. I was so sure that in that moment I was going to die. But before the punch came, I felt her weight being lifted off of me and I heard a line of what I could only assume were curse words in another language come out of her mouth.

I opened my eyes and saw that Millie had come over to help me up. There was also a brown skinned old guy kneeling down next to me who I've never seen before. I looked past them and saw the boy holding Santana back as she tried desperately to get out of his hold.

"Are you alright, Miss?" the brown skinned man said. He spoke with a really heavy accent but I managed to understand what he asked and nodded my head shakily. He then motioned to Millie to help pull me up onto my feet, incase I was still too shocked to do it myself. Santana had finally calmed down by now but the boy was still holding her arms.

The man turned to address Santana. "I only have just arrived as Kurt was pulling you away, but it is to my understanding that you, Miss. Lopez, had attacked this girl. Is that correct?"

"That's bullcrap!" Santana shouted and started to make a lunge for me again but got caught by Kurt's hold on her. "She spilled coffee all over me!"

"That was only because you were being a butt head to me!" I yelled back, mentally slapping myself for not coming up with a better insult than 'butt head'.

Santana scoffed and was about to say something else but the brown man raised her hands and said, "Ladies! Please calm down. I want both of you in my office. Immediately."

I looked to Millie for reassurance and she nodded and gave me a little smile. I wasn't sure why I nodded back at her, but I did. Kurt finally let go of Santana's arms and the both of us followed who I guessed was the principal out of the cafeteria. While she walked I glanced over at Santana and she made a lunge for me again which made me squeal until I realized she had only faked it to freak me out.

She chucked under her breath and mumbled, "Baby."

I scoffed and mumbled back, "Butt head."

* * *

**A/N; hey y'all, merci for reading if ya did. this chapter was a bit longer than i had expected it to be, it's almost 4000 words more than the first chapter but i think i sort of like this length so i'll try to keep it around it for the next chapters. i like reviews and stuff so leave me some if ya want c:**

**tumblr; pierce-benoist . tumblr . com**

**song used; Single Ladies - Beyoncé**

**edit; i just realized i forgot to set the date of how long ago this was. this chapter takes place March of 2011,**** the previous chapter in which it's present time is around June 2012. so it's about a year and a bit of a difference in time between when they first met, and graduation day. hope that cleared some confusion up if there was any!**


	3. Detention

It turns out that I was right; the man who broke up the fight between me and Santana was the principal. I thought he was really nice; he was a little hard to understand because of his accent though. All the way to the office he was talking and I kept trying to place where he was from but it was too hard. I eventually gave up and focused on not looking intimidated by Santana.

I know I acted tough back in the cafeteria, or at least I hoped I did, but honestly I was so terrified. Santana's a really small girl, a lot shorter than I am, and she's really skinny so you wouldn't think she'd be that scary, but boy was I wrong. She proved that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover because she is really strong. Like, _really_ strong.

I side glanced to her walking next to me and saw her cleaning her nails with a..wait, is that a razor blade? Where did she even get that!?

I faced forward again and tried not to look even more scared than I already was.

By the time we got to the principal's office class was already 20 minutes in. "So much for being on time for my first day," I mumbled to myself but I think Santana heard me because she sort of looked at me then looked away again but didn't say anything.

"Ladies, take a seat," the principal said, and we did. I sat on the small couch that was up against the wall and brought my legs up to cross them, putting my hands in my lap after I got comfy. Santana sat in the chair that was on the opposite side from me, her left leg crossed over her right. I was really confused; she didn't even look like she was worried about getting in trouble. I wondered if maybe she gets in trouble a lot and she just doesn't care about coming down to the office anymore. Or maybe she's like me and she's trying to look hard but really feels like crying out of fear on the inside.

The principal sat behind his desk and pulled his chair in, laying his arms down on the desk and holding his hands together. "Now, I want to know exactly what happened." Neither me or Santana spoke, or even moved for that matter. She still looked like she could care less about being here and I was too scared to breath. The principal sighed and sat back in his chair. "I can wait all day if I must."

Santana rolled her eyes and uncrossed her legs, sitting up in her chair. "You wanna know what happened? Well, what happened was dough-for-brains over here spilled coffee all over me on purpose."

I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop, that wasn't what happened _at all_. The principal was about to say something before I cut him off, "Um, principal.." I squinted my eyes to see the name tag on his desk. "Figgins.. That's not what happened."

Santana shot a glare in my direction and I tried my best to ignore it. "Okay," he said hesitantly. "what happened then?"

"Well," I started quickly before Santana could tell another lie. "this is my first day here, and I was feeling nervous so I wanted to get coffee to calm me down,-"

"You drink coffee to calm you down? I'm pretty sure coffee's supposed to make you like, hyperactive," Santana interrupted, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"For me it calms me down," I explained shortly. "Anyway, I couldn't find my money so I sat down on the ground-"

"Which was very childlike of you," Santana said, this time looking down at her nails again like she wasn't even paying attention. I ignored her this time.

" I sat down to search for money in my bag. Next thing I knew, I stood up to go pay for it and Santana bumped into me-"

"How do you even know my name?"

I let out a frustrated breath. "I heard that other kid Kurt call you that, so I'm guessing that's your name, isn't it?" Santana just nodded, and I continued. "She bumped into me and she spilled her coffee-"

"Coffee that I paid for with my money. I hope you know that I expect you to give me back my 2.50$ by the way."

"Can you stop interrupting?" I snapped, looking at her. She didn't say anything but she laughed quietly under her breath, like she was enjoying getting me all worked up. I think she was doing it on purpose.

"Miss. Lopez, please stop interrupting..what is your name?" Principal Figgins asked, directing his vision at me.

"Brittany," I answered. "Brittany S. Pierce."

"Alright. Miss. Lopez, please stop interrupting Miss. Pierce and let her finish speaking." I found it kind of weird how she kept addressing Santana, and now me, as Miss instead of our actual names but I decided not to think too much into it.

"Fine," Santana sighed and slouched back in her seat, propping one elbow up on the arm rest and leaning her head against it, smirking at me. "by all means, _please_ continue." I could make out the sarcasm in her voice but I ignored it instead of calling it out.

"Thank you," I said to Santana before turning back to the principal. "So she bumped into me, spilled her coffee on both of us, then started yelling at me for it when I didn't even do anything. She was being really mean and kept pro..provo..what's that word again?" I asked, more to myself than to the other two people in the room.

"Provoking?"Principal Figgins offered.

"Yeah, that word!" I said, nodding my head. "She was provoking me so I got angry at her and tried to stand up for myself, but she kept insulting me and being mean so I sort of..dumped my coffee on her head." The last part I said noticeably quieter. I looked over to Santana and noticed just how much the coffee had dropped on her. All her hair was wet and the white on her cheerleading uniform was brown.

Spilling my coffee on her seemed like a smart idea at the time, but now I was sort of regretting doing that. Not because I felt bad for Santana, but because I didn't want to get in trouble for it.

"I see," Principal Figgins said, looking between Santana and me. "But that can not be the whole story, I saw Mr. Hummel picking Santana up off the floor when I walked in."

I nodded my head, letting him that was true before I started talking again. "I spilled the coffee on her, so she pushed me onto the ground and like, tackled me. She was about to punch me but then Kurt pulled her away."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Santana sit up abruptly and her eyes widened. "You can't prove I was about to punch you!" she said, suddenly a lot more into the conversation than she had been before.

"Well, I kinda can. I saw you wind up your hand and everything before I covered my eyes and screamed," I explained.

"Okay well, yeah, that happened, but it wasn't me."

I looked at her with my eyebrows furrowed. "Uh..how could it have not been you?" I asked, half curious and half afraid to hear the answer.

"You see," Santana started, getting up from her chair and took a few steps closer to me. "When I get really pissed off like I was back in the caf, I get taken over by my other personality, Snix. She's the one that was about to punch you, not me." She turned to look at Prinicpal Figgins and shrugged. "You can't really blame me if it wasn't actually me who was going to hit her."

It almost amused me to see how hard Santana was trying to defend herself. My parents tell me I'm a pretty gullible person but even I knew that wasn't true. I looked at the principal to see if I could tell by his face if he believed this. His face had as much emotion in it as Kristen Stewart did in every movie she's in, which isn't really a lot. He didn't seem like he was going to say anything, so I spoke up. "You can't be serious right now."

Santana whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes at me. "I'm completely one hundred percent serious."

I laughed out loud which seemed to make her even more mad than she already was but I didn't care, her explanation was ridiculous! "Right, and you're calling _me_ a baby."

"You better watch it, Blondie. You see my hair?" she asked, pointing to her head. "I gots razor blades all up in here, so unless you want to get cut, I suggest you watch yourself."

"Miss. Lopez!"

Santana and I both turned to look at Principal Figgins.

"I will not have you threatening this new student. From what you both have told me, I have come to the conclusion you are both at fault here."

"What!?" Santana asked, walking up to the desk. "You've got to be kidding me, I did nothing wrong!"

"Miss. Lopez, please calm down and take your seat." Reluctantly, Santana walked back to her seat and sat down, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now, as I said, you are both at fault, but I can not suspend either one of us for this. Instead, you will both have detention for the next week, including today after school, clapping erasers, washing the blackboards, and everything that goes along with that."

I just nodded my head because what he was saying wasn't that unreasonable. We had both been wrong so we both deserve to be in trouble. But while I agreed, Santana seemed to not like this idea so much..

"You've got to me fucking kidding me," she said, rubbing the spot on her nose between her eyes with her thumb and pointer finger. "I have to spend, a whole week in detention, with her-" she pointed at me. "-doing janitors work?"

Principal Figgins just smiled and nodded once. I think he's used to seeing Santana so angry that he isn't even fazed by it.

To my surprise, Santana actually just scrunched up her face and let out a deep sigh. "Fine," she said, standing up. She started to walk out but stopped to point a finger right in front of my face. "You are so on my list, Blondie."

And that was the last thing she said before walking out and slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Santana stormed through the halls down to her locker. She was so furious that not only did she have to be in detention for a week, but she had to suffer through it with _Brittany_. Brittany, the girl who spilled coffee all over her hair and clothes, the one who started this whole mess by purposely spilling her coffee on herself. Well..maybe it actually wasn't on purpose, but that didn't mean Santana was ready to forgive her for being so damn clumsy.

Santana looked down at her uniform and grimaced. All the white colored spots were now brown, even some of the red was tinted a few shades darker. The brunette groaned and kept walking, praying she had extra clothes. She approached her locker and angrily dialed in her combination. It took at least four tries before she actually got it open, and when she did, she swung the door back causing it to bang against the lockers next to her.

"Did you really feel the need to slam your locker door just to express your anger, Santana?"

Santana turned her head to the left and saw the last person she wanted to talk to right now. Wait, scratch that. Second last, Brittany was definitely in the number one slot.

"What do you want, Berry?" she snapped, leaning on her right side against the locker and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't want anything. I was merely walking back to class – a class that you haven't been in and might I remind you that the bell rang twenty minutes ago – from the washroom and just so happened to pass by the same moment that you opened your locker very loudly," Rachel explained with that tone she always used when she was being annoying. Which was a tone she used pretty much all the time because Santana always found the shorter girl annoying.

Santana rolled her eyes and sighed. "Look, Yentl. This day has already been complete shit and I'm two seconds away from smashing your head into my locker in attempt to resize your gigantic nose, so if I were you, I would just walk away. Right. Now." She then turned back around to search her locker for new clothes.

Rachel stood there, observing Santana's behavior, trying to figure out why the Latina was angrier than usual today. "You're uniform is covered in coffee," she stated more to herself than to Santana.

Santana chuckled sarcastically and pretended to be shocked, "Wow! Really? Gee thank, Rachel, I totally couldn't tell by seeing all the brown splotches!" she smiled an overly fake smiled for all of two second before turning it into a glare.

The diva didn't move from her spot, she just kept watching Santana. After a few moments, Rachel quietly said, "I have extra clothes in my locker if you need them."

Santana turned to snap at her again but instead just sighed and closed her locker door. Without another word being said, Rachel walked away to her locker, Santana following a few steps behind. The last thing she wanted was to be seen covered in coffee _and_ walking with Rachel Berry.

They got to Rachel's locker fairly quickly with only two or three people seeing them. They mostly just gave Santana a questioning look but decided not to dwell too much into it and just kept walking. The short brunette opened up her locker and pulled out a pair of jeans that didn't look so hideous and none other than Rachel's infamous reindeer sweater.

"Shit.." Santana swore under her breath as she grabbed the sweater from Rachel, holding it up to get a better look at it. She cringed and put her arms to the side, looking at the other girl and asking, "Are you sure you don't have anything else?"

"Nope, I'm afraid that's all I have today. I've already changed into spare clothes after my daily morning slushie facial and the sweater is all that's left," Rachel said, giving Santana an apologetic look. "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to. I guess you can just stay in your Cheerio's uniform. Though I do suggest you get that dry cleaned as soon as possible."

Santana held up the sweater again and thought hard about whether she actually wanted to be in this, or her stained uniform. After a few moments of serious concentration, the Latina sighed and mumbled, "I'll wear the sweater.."

"Splendid!" Rachel beamed, closing her locker. "Right, so let's get you to the washroom so you can change and we can get back to class," she continued, grabbing Santana's arm to drag her along.

Normally Santana would have snapped if Rachel so much as poked her with a finger, nevermind hold onto her entire arm. But she figured nothing could be worse than having to wear this sweater so she allowed the girl to bring her to the closest washroom.

The two girls walked into the washroom and saw two other Cheerio's already there.

"Santana? What happened to your uniform?" one of them named Dani asked her.

"Yeah, and why are you with _her_?" the other, named Carly, asked, putting emphasis on the word 'her'.

Santana sighed and simply said, "Doesn't matter. Out." The two Cheerio's packed up their makeup and quickly left the washroom, not wanting to upset the head cheerleader anymore.

After they left Santana walked into one of the stalls, being sure to lock it, and started changing.

"I don't get how you do that," Rachel asked suddenly.

"Do what?" Santana asked back, her voice muffled by her cheerleading top as she was in the middle of taking it off.

"Scare people so easily. I mean, all you had to do was say three words, and they were scurrying away like mice," she clarified, honestly baffled.

Santana stepped out of the stall, dressed fully in Rachel's clothes, and walked over to the mirror. The pants were a little short so she had to roll them up a bit to make them look like the type of pants that Blaine kid wore, and the sweater was just...

"Oh god, I look like a freaking toddler," Santana grumbled, observing herself in the mirror and cringing at every angle.

"I think you look fine," Rachel offered. She knew how upset the Cheerio was to have to wear her clothes since Santana was constantly making fun of them. "Anyways, you never answered. How do you make them so scared?"

Santana turned around to look at Rachel before answering. "They're scared of me because I reek of authority and I say and do everything with confidence. I want them to be afraid of me, that way there's no chance of anyone pushing me off the top," she said shrugging. She was grateful that Rachel had offered her clothes but she really didn't want to be having this conversation with her, so before the shorter girl could start talking again, Santana said quickly, "Look, thanks for the clothes Rachel, I'll be sure to give them back to you as soon as I can. I'll see you in class."

With a few quick steps Santana walked around the girl and out of the washroom and towards her class, keeping her head down, hoping that no one would recognize her.

* * *

After Santana walked out of the office, Principal Figgins told me I should probably get to class. He paged my teacher through the intercom thingy and told them that I was a new student and it's okay that I'm late to class. I thanked him for being so nice and once he told me where to go after school for my detention, I left and started walking towards my class.

My schedule said I had English first period, room 135. I knew that it was on the ground floor, so that was good, but I had no idea if I was anywhere close to where it was. I kept walking down the hall and all I was seeing was lockers, no classrooms. I turned a corner but stopped and turned around just as fast when I saw Santana being pulled by a short brunette coming my way. I ran back down the hallway I walked up and hoped that she didn't see me.

After 15 minutes of walking up and down halls, trying to find my class, I was ready to give up. I walked over to the lockers and leaned against one of them, sliding down. I brought my knees up to my chin, resting my forehead on top of them, and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"Um, are you alright?"

I looked up and saw a boy standing next to me, looking down with a concerned look on his face. At first I thought it was the boy, Kurt, from the cafeteria that was there with Santana, but once I noticed what he was wearing I knew it wasn't. Kurt was wearing his cheerleading uniform while this boy was wearing a button up white shirt with a purple bowtie and black pants that stopped above his ankles. I must have been staring at him for longer than I thought because he cleared her throat and spoke again.

"Hey? Are you okay?" he asked, crouching so he could get a better look at me.

I shook my head to bring myself out of my daze and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so," I said before quietly adding, "I'm lost."

The boy nodded his head in thought and for the first time, I noticed how much hair gel was in his hair. It looked like there was so much that if I were to touch his hair it would crack.

"Lost?" he asked me, looking right at my face. I think he was trying to tell if I was a new kid or something, his eyebrows were furrowed and he looked like he was thinking hard.

"Yeah, I'm new. This is my first day here," I clarified, looking back at my lap, fumbling with my fingers.

"Oh! You're new? That explains a lot. Let me introduce myself," he stuck out his hand to me and flashed me a wide, toothy smile. "I'm Blaine Anderson."

I smiled back and slid my legs down till they were flat against the ground so I could take his hand. "I'm Brittany S. Pierce, nice to meet you."

"Pleasure's all mine," he replied, standing up still holding my hand before helping me up myself. "So, Brittany S. Pierce, you can't find your class?"

I shook my head and blushed. "No..I was in the principal's office before and I've been trying to find my class for like, a half hour."

"Ah, I see. Well here, let me help you. May I see your schedule?" he asked. I nodded and handed him my schedule, waiting for him to say something again. "Oh! You have English in room 135, so do I. Some luck, right? I'll walk you there." He handed me back my schedule and I folded it up, putting it in my pocket, before following him through the halls.

"So," he started. "Principal's office? What'd you do? Are you some kind of badass that got kicked out of their old school so that's why you moved here?"

I giggled and shook my head. "Nope, I'm definitely not a badass. And I was there because some girl tried to kill me in the cafeteria when I went to go buy coffee."

Blaine side looked at me when I said that before look straight ahead again and turned left down another hallway. "Some girl tried to kill you while you were buying coffee? Let me guess..it was Santana Lopez?"

My eyes widened and I looked at him with my mouth hanging open. "How did you know?" I asked, amazed that he could have guessed that on the first try.

Blaine shrugged and laughed before saying, "Me and Santana don't get along either and she's usually quite dangerous in the mornings without her coffee, so I just assumed. Killing someone would seem like something she would do though."

"Santana's a murderer?" I asked, feeling worried that she was actually going to kill me now.

He obviously didn't seem worried because he just laughed again. "She's not, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was. She's probably the meanest girl in this school, and that's saying something." I was about to ask what he meant but he started talking again before I had the chance to. "Here we are, room 135, English," he opened the door for me and motioned for me to go in. "Ladies first."

I smiled and giggled out, "And people say chivalry is dead," before walking in the class, Blaine following behind me.

* * *

So it turned out that I have most of my classes with Blaine, which was good because I didn't know anybody else and I was terrified to talk to anyone. At lunch I sat with him and his friends, Marley (who's mom is the cafeteria lady who helped me this morning), Sam, Quinn, and Sebastian. They were all really nice and welcomed me to the school; they even asked me for my number so we had a way to talk because I didn't have Facebook or anything. I actually used to but the kids at my old school used to write mean things on my wall so I had Lord Tubbington deactivated it.

I got comfortable around them really fast and by the time lunch was finished, we were all laughing and having an awesome time. While me and Blaine were walking to our third period class, he told me and Sam and Quinn were dating and have been since the middle of sophomore year, almost two years. I awh'd and said they looked really cute together. I asked about Marley, if she had a boyfriend or something, and Blaine told me she didn't. He also told me he thought that maybe she was playing for the other team but not to say anything. At first I thought he was talking about sports teams, but after he clarified and said he meant he thinks she likes girls, I understood. When I asked him about Sebastian he kind of got all awkward and fidgety and told me that he was single, too. I chose to ignore his weird behavior and just shrugged and went along with it.

My last period class was Spanish, and it was the only class I didn't have with Blaine, but I did have with Marley. We walked to class together and she told me a little bit about herself and I told her a little bit about myself too. I was really curious about what Blaine thought about her and I really wanted to bring it up to ask but I didn't think I was good enough friends with her yet, so I didn't.

We got into the class and after I told the teacher, Mr. Schuester, who I was, he told me to sit beside Marley so she could catch me up on what we were doing. The desks were in groups of two so I was thankful that I was sitting beside Marley and not some random person I didn't know. When we finally sat down, she right away started explaining to me what we were doing and she even pulled out her notes to help me understand.

After a few minutes, the bell rang, and Mr. Schuester told everyone to settle down and be quiet. I pulled out my notebook and a pencil from my bag as he started talking and writing down things on the board. I quickly scribbled down my name and the date at the top right of the page like I always do on every paper I use, and started copying down what the teacher was writing on the board, trying to listen at the same time.

I was almost done writing down the first part of the note when there was a knock at the door. I didn't bother to look because I thought it would just be a teacher asking him a question, or maybe someone who was late to class, and I didn't really care so I just kept writing.

I finally finished writing and put down my pencil on my desk, leaned back in my chair. I was about to turn to say something to Marley but when I heard Mr. Schuester sigh and start talking to the person at the door, I froze.

"Santana, you're late. Again," I heard him say.

I turned around and saw Santana standing in the doorway wearing..something that definitely wasn't what she was wearing this morning.

"Yeah, I know," she said simply. "Can I come in now?"

Mr. Schuester sighed again, then stepped aside to let Santana in. Beside me I heard Marley mutter something that sounded like, 'oh crap', under her breath. I didn't even have time to ask her why she said that before Santana was standing beside me, looking down at me with her arms crossed.

I gulped loudly and cringed. I didn't want her knowing I was scared of her, because I wasn't. ..Okay maybe I was, but I still didn't want her knowing. That would make it easier for her to make my life miserable like everyone else did at my old school.

Copying how she looked and crossing my arms over my chest like she was, I looked up at her and asked as best as I could with my voice cracking, "Can I help you?"

"No, you can't. But what you _can_ do is move your ass out of my seat," Santana replied, glaring at me. Now I got why Marley said, 'oh crap,'. I was sitting in Santana's seat.

Before I had the chance to reply, Mr. Schuester interrupted us and asked, "Is there a problem, girls?"

Santana turned to face him and said, "Yeah there is. Blondie's in my seat."

"Can't you just sit somewhere today, Santana?" he asked, sighing again. I'm not sure why, but I had the feeling that Santana was the type of girl that always made everyone exhausted just by speaking to her.

Santana opened her mouth like she was going to snap at him for even suggesting that she sit somewhere else, but stopped herself and simply said, "Fine." I watched as she turned around, being sure to glare at me, before she walked to the row of seats behind the one I was sitting in and sat beside some boy with a mohawk.

I turned around in my seat and let out a breath of relief as Mr. Schuester continued his lesson. I thought for sure Santana was going to kill me for sitting in her seat; it wasn't like I knew this was where she sat though, so I don't know why she was so mad at me for it.

I got pulled from my thoughts when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I looked to my left and saw Marley looking at me with a confused look written all over her face.

"You're new, right?" she whispered to me. I nodded my head, slightly confused. I thought she knew I was new, that's what Blaine told everyone at lunch today. "Then why does Santana already hate your guts?"

I turned around to look where Santana was now sitting and saw her talking with the guy with the mohawk. I sat back in my seat and as quietly as I could, said back, "She bumped into me this morning in the cafeteria when we both went to go buy coffee and she spilled it all over us. Then she started yelling at me for making her spill her coffee and-"

"Brittany!"

Both of us turned around with wide eyes to see Mr. Schuester looking at us. "Is there something you'd like to share with the whole class?"

I felt my face go red and I looking around, hearing some people snickering at me. I saw Santana covering her mouth, trying hard not to laugh out loud. I looked back at Mr. Schuester and slowly shook my head no. He told me to stop talking, especially because I needed to catch up since it was the middle of the semester, then began talking about Spanish again.

I looked at Marley as she gave me an apologetic look. I think she felt bad for me getting caught telling her what happened. I ripped a piece of paper out of my notebook and wrote down the rest of the story onto it before folding it up and passing the note to Marley. As she read it I decided to actually pay attention and every so often wrote down some important notes to remember for a test we had in two weeks.

A few minutes later, I saw Marley pass the paper back to me with her writing on it, underneath mine. I looked down at it and saw that she wrote, _Sorry that happened..that sucks. Santana can be pretty nasty sometimes_.

I grabbed my pencil and wrote down, _It's okay, I just got really scared that she was going to kill me._ before I slid it back to her.

I looked at the clock that hung on the wall and saw that there was only 10 more minutes of class left. I sighed in relief, thankful that this day was almost over, until I remembered I had detention after school. With Santana.

Marley passed the note to me and I looked at Mr. Schuester to make sure he wasn't looking before I read what she had written down. _Don't worry, Brittany. Santana's pretty much all talk. She has, however, beaten up some people in the past. If you want, I could talk to her for you?_

I wrote down, _Yes, please. I really don't want to die before I graduate. You're friends with her?_ and passed it back to her.

I would have never thought that someone like Marley would be friends with someone like Santana. Marley was so nice and funny while Santana was mean and rude. That would be like me being friends with this one girl, Connie, who was like the Santana of my old school. She was the person who made fun of me the most and whenever she did something mean to me, everyone else that was there would do it to.

I looked at what Marley wrote down when she slid the paper to me again and was even more confused. _I guess you could say we're friends._ I was just about to write down what she meant by that but the bell rang and everyone started moving and packing up. I gathered up my things and put them into my bag, trying to remember what room I was supposed to go to for my detention.

"So you want me to talk to her?" Marley asked once she was all packed up.

I thought about it for a few moments before I nodded my head. "If you can, then that'd be really awesome of you. Thanks Marley."

"No problem," she replied and smiled at me.

_"Since I've come on home, well my body's been a mess. And I've missed your ginger hair, and the way you like to dress. Won't you come on over, stop making a fool out of me. Why don't you come on over Valerie?"_

Suddenly I heard some song I've never heard before playing and looked around confused until Marley pulled her phone out of her pocket, giving me an apologetic look, and answered her phone.

"Yeah? ...Okay... Okay, yeah. I'm coming. Bye." Marley closed her phone, pushing in back into her front pocket before smiling at me again. "Listen, I gotta go..so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure! See you tomorrow," I said, smiling back at her. She then turned around and ran out of the class. I found it kind of weird how she had to leave so early, but I guess she's one of the people who want to get home really quickly.

I finished packing up and put my backpack onto my back, tucking my chair in. Since Santana and I have this period together, I thought that we could probably walk to detention together. But when I tried to find her in the class, she was already gone.

_Maybe she wanted to get there fast?_ I thought. I just shrugged my shoulders to myself and walked out of the class.

* * *

Principal Figgins told me that I should go to room 100 after school and one of the teachers would be there to tell me and Santana what to do for our detention. I was nervous. I've never gotten detention before, and it makes it worse that it's on my first day of school. I didn't even know how long I was going to be here until I was allowed to go home. Hopefully not long, just the thought of being alone with Santana scared me so bad that I just wanted to run home right now.

Instead, I walked into room 100 and saw a woman, who I'm guessing was the teacher, standing with her back turned, looking at something on her desk. I looked around and didn't see Santana anywhere, which I thought was weird considering she pretty much ran out of class. I slowly walked forward until I was halfway into the class and cleared my throat. I think I scared her because she jumped a little and spun around, her hand on her chest.

"Oh, god, you scared me," she said, laughing a bit from embarrassment. "Can I help you with something? You here to learn a little extra more about sex?" she asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"W-what?" I stuttered out, my eyes widened. Why would I have come here to learn around sex? Was she one of those crazy ladies who sleeps with her students?

The teacher just laughed and walked closer to me, which made me take a small step back. "Hun, I'm not going to hurt you. I don't bite, well sometimes, but not usually," she said, throwing in a wink at the end. I was contemplating whether I should stay or run out of the class right now, and running out seemed like a pretty good idea. I took a few more steps back until I turned around, ready to run, but collided with someone which made me fall to the ground and the other person fall on top of me.

At first I was confused because I didn't hear anyone come in, but once I opened my eyes and was met with tan skin and confused chocolate brown eyes, I knew that it was Santana I ran into. Again.

"God, are you fucking serious? Again? Jesus Christ," Santana snapped none too quietly, scrambling off my body to a standing position and brushing her clothes off.

"Can you at least try not to swear in front of me, Santana? I _am_ a teacher after all," I heard come from behind me.

"Sorry Ms. H," Santana said, but I had a feeling she wasn't sorry.

"S'all right sweet cheeks, not like I really care anyways," the teacher replies, smirking at Santana before turning around and walking back to her desk.

I had finally stood up off the ground and I was standing near the door still, looking completely confused. What kind of teacher was this?

The teacher gathered her things and turned back around to address me and Santana, who was now sitting on top of one of the desks. "So," she started, leaning back on her desk. "what can I help you ladies with? Having troubles with your..feelings or something?"

I'm pretty sure Santana was as shocked as I was that the teacher would even suggest that that was why we were here because she sort of choked of her air and started stuttering but not really saying any words.

The teacher laughed at both of us and shook her head, causing her blonde hair to sway in front of her face. "God, look at your faces! You two need to ease up a little, I was just joking," she said, then leaned forward a bit, bringing her hands up to her mouth as if she was telling us a secret and said, "if you _do_ need a little help on figuring out your sexuality though, I'm the gal to come to." She added in another wink.

I started to feel really uncomfortable now and wanted her to leave. I looked to the side where Santana was sitting and she seemed to have loosened up. She was leaning back on her hands, her legs crossed at her ankles. For the first time, I noticed what she was actually wearing. In class I was too scared to even look at her so I didn't even realize that she had changed from her cheerleading uniform, and her hair was out of a ponytail.

Her hair was down, parted to the side, and a little wet. I guessed she washed it after this morning when I spilled coffee all over it. She was wearing dark blue jeans that I guessed maybe she kept in her locker, except the cuffs were rolled up like how Blaine wore his, and her shoes were the ones she was wearing this morning. All of that was pretty normal, but her shirt was what caught my attention the most.

She wore a light blue knitted sweater that had a few strings hanging loose. And on the front, was a face of a reindeer. At first I thought it was cute, and I wondered where she got it but now I was just thinking about how much it didn't suit her and I almost started laughing but managed to keep it in.

I looked away from Santana and focused my attention on the teacher who was still waiting for us to tell her why we were here. "We have detention," I blurted out. If Santana wasn't going to say it then I guess I had to. "Principal Figgins told us to come to this room after school to clap erasers and stuff."

The teacher mouthed out the letter 'O' as if she understood now and nodded her head. "What'd you do to get busted? Drugs? Alcohol? Ran around the school nude?" She can't be serious.

Santana laughed and shook her head and quickly explained what happened.

"Okay..I get you being in trouble, Santana, you kind of got a record for detentions. But Blondie I've never even seen you around here," the teacher said, looking directly at me.

I fidgeted a little and looked away uncomfortably. "I'm new, today is my first day," I explained quietly.

"Well why didn't you say so?" the teacher asked in a cheerful, loud voice. She walked up to me and stuck her hand for me to shake. "Holly Holiday," she introduced, and I almost laughed at her name but played it off as a cough.

"Brittany S. Pierce," I replied, shaking her hand a little hesitantly because this woman did still freak me out a bit.

"Cool, I'm the sex ed teacher, in case you were wondering," she said. That made so much sense. I just smiled and nodded as she picked up her things again. "Well, Figgins told me that two students would come here for detention, and he left with this list this of chores," she picked up a list and handed it to Santana before moving towards the door. "have fun with that. See ya dude!" And with that she left the room.

I stayed in my spot, mostly because I was terrified of being alone with Santana. Neither of us said anything. She was reading the list and I was still standing by the door like a dummy. The silence was starting to make me nervous so without thinking I asked, "What's with your shirt?"

I sucked my lips into my mouth as she looked at me. I was half expected her to yell at me and the other half was expected her to get off the desk and punch me. Instead she just sighed and said, "I didn't have an extra top after you spilled coffee all over me and this was the only thing I could find. It's Berry's," she explained, looking back down at the list.

I don't know who Berry was, but I just nodded and accepted the answer. I sorta felt bad for this morning now, I didn't mean to spill coffee on her, she just got me so worked up and angry that it was on impulse. My parents always did say I was a little impulsive.

"I'm sorry," I managed to squeak out. I don't want there to be anything bad between us so apologizing would be the best thing to do, right?

I watched as Santana hopped off the desk and walked right up to me. She stepped so close to me that I could smell get perfume and subconsciously inhaled it, closing my eyes. It smelled really nice, kind of like a musky scent mixed with sweat almost. As soon as I realized what I was doing, my eyes snapped back open and I was now looking at a hand pointing a finger in my face.

"Let's get one thing here straight, alright?" she asked, her voice was angry and all I could do was nod in response. "I don't like you. I don't have any desire to be your friend nor do I even want to, got it? Nod." I nodded again. "Good. Now, because of you we have to be in detention for the rest of the week together. During this time, there's not going to be any 'getting to know each other' crap or trying to make amends between us. Okay?" I nodded again and she backed up from me. "Okay. Now let's get this stupid list done so I can go the fuck home."

I don't know if it was how she thought she was better than me or how she talked and treated me like the girls at my old school, but I really didn't like Santana. I thought maybe we could try being friends after what happened this morning but obviously she didn't want to. So fine, if she doesn't like me, then I don't like her. It's not like she's the type of girl that I would be friends with anyways.

"The first thing on this list is clapping erasers," Santana said, interrupted my thoughts. "I'm allergic to dust so that's all you." I snorted at that. I didn't mean to outloud, but I did and Santana just glared at me. "What? You think I'm lying?"

"Um..kinda," I replied with little confidence. Santana didn't say anything to that but looked back down at the list. She walked over to the teacher's desk and took two hi lighters. "What are you doing?"

Santana sighed. "I'm highlighting which things you do, and which I do," she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I nodded and watching as she took the cap off of a purple hi lighter. "Wait!" I yelled louder than I meant to. She looked at me with a confused expression, waiting for me to explain why I stopped her. "Um..can I be purple?"

Santana looked at the marker then at me. "Are you serious?"

"Yup."

"Really? What are you? 12?" she asked, looking at me like what I requested was ridiculous.

I frowned. "No. I'm 16. I wouldn't be in high school if I was 12."

Santana continued to stare at me like I was an alien then just shook her head. "Wait you're only 16? Did you skip a grade or something?"

I shook my head and sighed, "No..my birthday hasn't passed yet. It's on April 1st." Suddenly Santana burst into laughed so hard that she had to clutch her stomach and hold onto the desk for balance. I just looked at her confused, why was she laughing? Did I have something on my face?

I wiped at my mouth just to make sure.

"Oh god, you can't be serious. Tell me you're not serious," Santana said through her laughs. I continued to frown at her. I still don't understand what's so funny.

After a few moments she finally calmed down and wiped a stray tear under her eye that must have came out from laughing too hard. "Your birthday's on April fool's day?"

Oh..that's why she's laughing. "Yeah. It is." I said, my voice short. I didn't mean to seem upset or anything, I just hated when people made fun of my birthday just because it was on a day when every pulled pranks on each other. Every time someone figures out my birthday's on April 1st, they always make jokes like 'oh, your birthday's a joke!' and 'I bet when you were born the doctors said you were a boy then they said April fools!' and a bunch of other mean things.

Santana must have noticed I was upset because she quickly stopped laughing and cleared her throat. "Whatever, my birthday's on March 25th, international waffle day."

The tips of my lips curved up a little. "You were born on international waffle day?" I asked. For some reason I wasn't really embarrassed by my birthday anymore.

Santana nodded and I could have sworn I saw her smile too, for like a fraction of a second. But she turned back into mean Santana within seconds and put on a permanent scowl. "Yeah. Anyways. Here's your shit to do," she said, handing me half of the list. "I'm gonna go start with empting all the garbage's in each class. Try not to fuck anything up, alright? Can you handle that?." I nodded once and then she left the room.

I stood there looking at the doorway confused. One second, Santana was mean and making fun of me. Then she's joking around with me. And now she's mean again?

I know I just met Santana, but she is already the most confusing person I know.

* * *

**A/N; hey y'all, merci for reading if ya did. sorry for such a long time going by and not updating! the past few weeks have been quite busy for me and with exams and everything i've always been too busy to write :/ my last exam is monday though so from now on i'm going to try to get _at least_ on update in a week. i like reviews and stuff so leave me some if ya want c:**

**tumblr; pierce-benoist . tumblr . com**

**song used; Valerie - Amy Winehouse**


	4. She's so confusing

So it turned out detention wasn't all that bad. I mean, it really sucked that I had to stay late after school every day for a whole week, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The first day went okay; I got home about an hour or two after I was usually supposed to. But it was only when I got home that I realized I completely forgot to tell my parents that I wasn't going to be home right away. The second I stepped through the door my mom started yelling at me, telling me she was worried sick that someone kidnapped me, which I don't really believe. My dad on the other hand just asked me where I was and why was I home so late.

My dad was nice like that. Whenever something bad happens, he's always the calm one. He never yells, and when he does it's only when he gets really, _really_ upset. Like when baseball's on but the TV won't work.

I told my parents what happened during that morning and while my dad was sympathetic for me, my mom yelled at me for being so idiotic and trying to fight back and stand up for myself against Santana. She grounded me for the rest of the week.

At first I thought that was pointless. Usually when teenagers get grounded they're not allowed to go out, but I never go out anyways so I almost laughed when she told me I had to stay inside the house for the whole week. But then she said that meant I wasn't allowed to use my phone either I got really upset. My phone was the only way I could keep in contact with Sugar, Tina and Artie so taking it away meant I couldn't talk to them for a whole week.

Eventually my dad convinced her to just give me a warning and if it happens again they'll ground me for real. My mom was stubborn at first but agreed and gave me my phone back, but made me do all the dinner dishes by myself.

The rumor of what happened Tuesday morning got out and now everyone in the school knew who I was and what happened. Everywhere I went in the school people whispered about me, saying that I was the girl who stood up to Santana Lopez and a bunch of other weird things. I don't like it. I hate having the whole school talking about me. I'd rather just be invisible than the centre of attention.

It's Thursday now, which means I only have two more days of detention with Santana. So far we've only been doing things separately, but Principal Figgins came up to us yesterday and said that tomorrow (which is today) he needs us to work together to clean the locker rooms.

Of course Santana put up a fight and demanded that she do it by herself if she has to do it at all, but in the end Principal Figgins said that we had to do it together and that was that. Santana seemed really mad because of that and I sorta was too. I didn't want to be spending any extra time with her than what I already had to, I really didn't like Santana.

On the bright side though, I've gotten to know Blaine and his friends really well now; they even invited me out this weekend to go bowling with them. I don't really like bowling but I'm definitely not going to pass up an opportunity to hang out with them. Me and Blaine talk all the time and even me and Marley are starting to get really close even though we only have Spanish together.

Because I don't know anyone else in my Spanish class, Mr. Schue lets me sit beside Marley every day even though Santana made a fuss about it _every_ _day_. She walks into class, sees I'm still sitting beside Marley and glares at me. Then she complains to Mr. Schue with a new excuse every time about how she _has_ to sit in that seat and she couldn't in any other one. And Mr. Schue always just sighs and tells her to sit somewhere else. Then she walks past mine and Marley's desks, glares at me again, and gives a look to Marley. And Marley always smiles after.

I find that really weird. I don't understand the looks Santana gives her everyday and I don't understand why Marley always smiles after. I know they're friends and everything, even though I never see them standing together or talking, but it's just weird.

Even though Marley told me she talked to Santana, Santana wasn't any nicer to me. She still makes fun of me when I did something weird and she trips me whenever I walked past her. I even found her aiming darts at my head one time.

I just can't wait for this week to be finally over.

* * *

Santana walked up to her locker, putting her bag on the ground and quickly dialing in her combination. She didn't know why she was in a pissier mood than usual, even more so than she was on Tuesday, but all she knew was that she wanted this day to be over.

It was Friday. Friday meant only one more days of detention with Brittany, and thank god for that. The Latina hated having the see the girl every single day. It wasn't unusual for Santana to hate someone, but with Brittany it was like a whole new thing. She had never felt this much hatred for a girl she barely knew, and being around her more than she needed to be was only pissing her off even more.

Grabbing her math binder out of her locker, Santana picked up her bag off the floor and swung it onto her back. She closed the locker and turned her body to the right to start walking down the hall but immediately bumped into someone, making her drop her book.

Santana bent down to pick her book up and let out a frustrated sigh. "I swear to fucking god, if that's you, Blondie, I'm going to-"

"It's not Brittany."

Santana looked up from her crouching position on the floor and almost smiled. "Hey, sorry," she said, her permanent scowl that she always seemed to be wearing slowly fading.

"It's alright, don't worry about it San," the person said, smiling softly as the kneeling girl.

A small smile found Santana's lips as she stood up. She leaned up against her locker and crossed her arms over her chest. "So, what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if after class we were still..?"

It took Santana a second to figure out what they were talking about, but within a few she was nodding her head. "Oh! Yeah definitely, of course. I mean, we always do, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make sure," they said, smiling again. "So, I'll see you then?"

"Yeah, see you then," Santana said, watching as the person walked by her and down the hall. She turned to watch them as they walked and felt a smile tugging on her lips again.

"I hope that smiles for me."

Santana snapped herself out of her trance and saw Kurt standing next to her, smirking. "Oh of course it is!" she said theatrically. "Who else would it be for?"

Kurt laughed sarcastically and fixed his book bag on his shoulder. "Well..you seem to have your eyes on a certain _someone_.." she said, unsubtly pointing in the direction of where the person walked off.

The Latina's eyes widened and she smacked Kurt in the arm. "Kurt! I do not! We're friends. That's it."

Kurt rolled his eyes but played along. He knew Santana was never one to talk about her feelings and he wouldn't be the one that would force her to. She had always been very reserved like that, always having her defences and walls up and if that's how she wanted to be, Kurt would just let her be.

"Okay, okay. I believe you," he said, turning to walk with her to class. "So, how's detention with your new best friend?"

Santana groaned and sighed. "Terrible. She can't do anything right! One of the things she had to do was clap erasers and she ended up building a little fort out of all of them."

Kurt chuckled. "Seriously? But that's adorable."

"No it's not. It's really fucking annoying," she replied. "I don't know, at least it's almost over. We just got one more day to go then I'll finally be done with her. Just sucks that the last day we're actually going to have to work _together_ rather than separately."

"Why don't you actually try _being her friend_?" Kurt suggested as if it was the most obvious thing. "It'll make detention a lot enjoyable if you're there with someone you can stand."

"I _can't_ stand her though, that's the thing. She's just so childish, and annoying, and clumsy, and just so..so.." Santana paused for a moment, trying to figure out the correct word to sum up all that was 'Brittany'.

"So _stupid_."

* * *

I never understood why we used letters in equations. Wouldn't the class be English then, and not math? My teacher, Ms. Short, tells me that they're variables and that we use them for when we don't know the number value. Well if we don't know the number value why can't we just ask someone who does know?

I don't even really like math class anyways, it's really boring. I actually don't like any class really. Maybe Spanish, but that's only because I sit with Marley. Then again, Santana's also in that class so maybe I don't like it so much..

I don't understand why Santana hates me so much. I mean, I don't like her either, but that's only because she makes fun of me a lot and treats me like she's better than me. I've heard around the school that she never likes anyone except the popular kids, and I am definitely not popular, so maybe that's why she doesn't like me?

But she's friends with Marley, and from the looks of it, she not that popular either. Or maybe she is, I've only known her not even a week yet. Maybe she's like, a superhero or something. Loser by day, popular by night?

..That's weird. Nevermind.

I don't know, everything about Santana just confuses me. It's like she purposely tries to not make any sense just to confuse me which isn't a very nice thing to do. Then again, Santana's not a nice person to begin with.

A loud ringing interrupts my day dream and I see everyone around me packing up and Blaine is standing next to my desk smiling.

"Hey, ready to go to lunch?" he asks, straightening his bowtie.

I look down at my desk covered with papers and pencils and nod. "Yup, just gimmie a sec to pack up."

I put all my stuff into my bag as quickly as I can before standing up next to Blaine and flashing him a smile. "Okay! Let's go."

As we walk to our lockers, which are surprisingly right beside each other, we talked about our first few periods, even though we have them together, and anything else that was going on in our lives.

We get to our lockers and I put my bag on the floor then dialed in my combination. I pulled my locker to open it, but it didn't move. I furrowed my brows together and tried again. Still wouldn't budge.

"Hey," I said, turning my head to look at Blaine. "is your locker working?"

He quickly put in his own combo and opened his locker on his first try. "Yeah, why? Is yours not opening?"

"No, it's not. I don't know why, I'm pretty sure I put in the right numbers," I answered, trying to open it again. Nothing.

"Huh, well that's odd. Do you have your combination on you?" he asked, closing his locker back up and turning to me. I nodded and pulled my locker combination out of my pocket, handing it to him. He read it over nodding to himself before looking up and asking, "Which numbers did you put in?"

I closed my eyes for a couple seconds, trying to remember while pretending I was opening my locker in mid air before reciting, "4, 37, 13."

Blaine looked down at the paper again before chuckling. "That's not your combination, Brittany. It's 4, _27_, 13. You were close though."

I made an 'O' with my mouth and blushed, I could never remember my combinations. "Oops."

"Here, let me do it," he said, stepping in front of me and turning the lock on my locker. He swung it open and took a step back, putting his hands in front of him like he was presenting a prize to me. "Ta-dah! Magic."

I giggled and shoved his shoulder with my hand. "Thank you," I said, bending down to take my books out of my bag. "You should be a magician."

"Yeah?" he asked, leaning his back against his locker. "I always thought I'd do better as a hairstylist."

I looked up at him grinning. "Well your hair is pretty fabulous so I could totally see you as that," I agreed, closing up my locker and swinging my back over my shoulder. "Now, you ready to go eat?"

"Yes, ma'am!" he answered enthusiastically before we started down the hall to the cafeteria, discussing different names for Blaine's future hair salon.

* * *

The last bell of the day rings and I groan, slamming my head down onto my desk, startling Marley.

"Oh god! Brittany? Are you okay?" she asked, panic lacing her voice.

"Ow.." I grumbled, slowly picking my head up and rubbing the left side of my forehead. "That probably wasn't the smartest thing to do." I look to my right where Marley is sitting, still looking at me with wide eyes. I let out an amused breath. "Yes, I'm okay."

Marley lets out a sigh of relief and starts to pack up. "Good. I thought you might have fainted."

"Nope!" I said, beginning to gather my things together. "But do you think fainting would get me out of detention today?" I asked, looking up at her.

Marley frowned and shook her head no. "Do you seriously not like Santana that much that you'd rather faint then have one last detention with her?"

I stared right in front of me, thinking hard for 10 seconds before turning back to Marley and nodding. "Yup!"

She frowned at me in comfort and squeezed my shoulder. "Well, good luck then. See you Sunday for bowling?"

"Totally! See you then!" I called after her as she walked quickly out of the class.

I finished packing up and as always, looked around the class only to see Santana was already gone. I sighed and walked out the room. _Maybe I'll be lucky enough that she won't even show up today._

* * *

After going to my locker and to the class I've been going to everyday for detention, I sat in the locker room, waiting for Santana. Ms. Holliday had given me a bucket of supplies to use to clean the locker room and told me to just wait there and when Santana comes to begin cleaning.

School ends at 2:25, it's 2:50 now.

I looked around to see if Santana had magically appeared in the room but sighed when I saw no one. Then as if on cue, the door burst open, making me jump, and Santana walked in.

"Oh. Good. You're already here," she said, fixing her high ponytail. "Sorry I'm late. You have the cleaning supplies?"

I nodded slowly, a little confused as to why she wasn't being a total b-word to me right now.

"Okay, good," she said.

We both didn't say anything and just sort of looked at each other. She was standing a few meters in front of me but I could still smell that smell she always had on her when she came to detention. Each time it was stronger than the last and it was really starting to bug me not knowing what it was.

"Why do you smell weird?" I asked suddenly before clamping my hands over mouth when I realized that I probably shouldn't have asked that.

Santana looked as surprised by my outburst as I was because her eyes were wide and I'm pretty sure Ethnic people can't blush but if they could, I think she would be too.

"Uh..w-what do you mean?" she asked, trying to be nonchalant about it but she looked really nervous.

I wrinkled my nose. What was so confusing about my question? "I mean," I started, standing up now. "you always have this weird smell on you whenever you come to detention." I explained, slowly walking closer to her. I didn't mean to be but I thought maybe if I could smell it more it's be easier to explain. And I could smell it more if I was closer to her. Santana didn't said anything. "It smells musky almost. It smells like..like," I wracked my brain for the right word to use, closing my eyes, thinking as hard as I could. "Sex."

By the time I got it I was standing so close to her that I'm sure I'll be smelling like it to. Santana swallowed hard and we looked at each other. Since I was a little taller than her she had to look up at me and while I was looking down at her, she looked so scared.

Santana coughed awkwardly and took a step back, and thank god for that. I was starting to feel a little dizzy standing that close to her. "Like sex?" she asked just to clarify. I nodded and she smirked. "Well, I'm head cheerleader; you don't think I have a boyfriend?"

Now it was my turn to awkwardly cough.

"Oh." I said, averting my gaze from her. "I uh, I didn't think of that, no." I shook my head in attempt to clear my thoughts and turned around to go get the supplies.

"Wait," I heard Santana's voice say and I stopped, turning back around to face her. "How do you know what sex smells like? I mean, don't get me wrong, but you look like a total virgin to me." she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

I shifted uncomfortably and opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. I tried again. "My mom had me when she was 16," I explained slowly. "So both my parents are still really young," I continued, desperately hoping Santana understood what I was getting at. I really didn't want to be explaining this..

It took a moment but soon Santana let out a knowing, "Oh…" and nodded her head in understanding.

I nodded back awkwardly.

It was quiet for almost half a minute before Santana smirked and asked, "So your parents are still gettin' some and you're not?"

I felt my face heat up and I'm sure I was blushing. I never really liked being pale but it was moments like this, when I got really embarrassed, that I hated it so much because by the way Santana is trying to hold in her laughter, there's a good chance my face is as red as a tomato.

"I, uh, n-no, not really," I stuttered, looking everywhere except at Santana's face.

I think my stuttering added to my obvious embarrassment is what sent her over the edge because now she was laughing so loud it was echoing throughout the locker room. I turned around again, grabbing the bucket of supplies.

Santana's laughter subsided as I turned back to face her and I saw her wiping at a tear that must have escaped her eyes when she was laughing. "Oh, god, I'm sorry," she said, still chuckling softly. "That's just too funny."

"It's not funny," I mumbled, looking down at the bucket in my hands. "Can we clean now? I really kinda wanna go home."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Santana looking at me. It was quiet for a long time again and the whole time she was still staring at me.

I looked up at her and frowned. "What are you looking at?" I asked more quietly than I meant to.

Santana stares at me for a few more seconds before shaking her head and looking away. "Nothing."

I frowned. She was obviously staring at me because of something. "What?" I asked again.

Santana sighed and walked up to me, grabbing the bucket and setting it down on the bench, going through it. "You said you wanted to go home, right? Well let's get started then. I have somewhere to be and I'd rather be there than here with you." she said, her voice back to how it usually was. I didn't know the exact words to describe it, but the usual way she spoke to me was like she was speaking to a 5 year old.

"Right," I mumbled, looking down at my feet. "I have somewhere to be too anyways. That's why I wanna go home." That was a lie. I wasn't doing anything tonight besides giving Lord Tubbington his weekly intervention.

Santana looked at me, her eyes slightly narrowed, and nodded. "Right. Here." She tossed me a cloth, which I caught, and a spray bottle, which I nearly dropped but caught at the last second. "You go start over there," she directed, pointing in the direction she was talking of. "And I'll start in the showers."

She didn't give me a chance to agree or disagree, not that I was going to because suddenly she didn't seem in a very good mood and I didn't want to upset her, before she was walking towards the showers, leaving me to stand in the middle of the locker room by myself.

I waited a few minutes, looking to the shower area of the room where Santana went before turning around and walking in the opposite direction to start my own cleaning.

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**A/N; hey y'all, merci for reading if ya did. i'm so sorry i haven't updated in a while. i've had serious writers block and wrote most of this chapter during com tech class today. i know it's not as long as the previous chapters but i think i'm going to change things up just a bit. instead of writing chapters that around six to nine thousand words and taking longer to write, i'm going to write shorter chapters but that way i can update faster..if that makes sense. it makes sense in my head. anyways, i like reviews and stuff so leave me some if ya want c:**

**tumblr; hump-lopez . tumblr . com**

**song used; no song this chapter :c**


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